A Simple Friend
by The Final Conduit
Summary: The death of Osana Naijimi has occurred. But despite the rival for Senpai's love being dead, Yandere-chan soon learns there's someone else who has eyes for Senpai. Of course, she won't rest until the rival is out of the picture. But what's poor Kokona to do, when there's a killer out for her blood?
1. Rival

The interior of the room was silent.

This was something to expect, for the small town had fallen asleep hours prior to then.

The one thing that disturbed the silence came in the form of a girl who had her feet planted in a chair, the chair itself creaking under her weight as she shifted herself left and right.

She stood up straight on the chair, her hands working restlessly with a piece of rope.

Every so often, when there came a sudden creak the young woman feared was loud enough for her father to hear, she would glance behind herself, towards her door, eyes gazing worriedly at it, her ears hearkening for her to know if the drunk living in her house was still asleep or otherwise.

She would stare at the door for a long time, and when she believed it'd be safe to assume there was nothing to fear, she returned to her task, her working the rope in a fixed way.

This was the only way, she had realized hours before.

After everything she had been through, this was her one way out of it, to quickly fix everything.

Several trails on her face held a deeper color to her skin as compared to the parts surrounding it, the tears she'd shed having dried up completely.

The crimson puffiness of her eyelids refused to let themselves be watered again, and the girl closed her eyes, breathing in deeply through her nose, doing the opposite the same way, her mouth duct taped shut.

She had done this to avoid any chances of her father trying to interfere with her in the event that she screamed before everything was over.

After an hour's time of working, the girl's labor ended, her wrapping her hand around the lower most part of the rope and tugging it harshly down for good measure, the structure she chose sturdy enough to hold the rope away from its owner in its entirety.

Nodding to herself, as though in self-affirmation, the girl noticed the flashing of her phone out of the corner of her eye, it lying on her bed, yet not a split second passed before she turned her attention completely away from it.

She couldn't deal with him now, she thought with a strong sense of disdain.

She breathed a moment, then grasped the rope's circle shape with her hands, tightening her grip on it after another moment of trying to steady her breathing.

This was the only way, she thought to herself again, her realizing that she was reasoning with herself instead of convincing herself.

In the midst of this realization, she shut her eyes and shook that undeniable fact out of her head.

She didn't need convincing.

She knew this was the only way.

Any other alternative would just make her go through hell all over again.

The point in time where she crossed the point of no return had passed by her a long time ago, and she had tried many times to return to the position she had been in before she crossed that metaphorical point, all to no avail.

What had once started out as a desperate attempt to win favor in someone's eyes had turned into a very unhealthy hobby, and from there it had become a source of how she made a living.

The girl who held a noose in her hands stared down at the rope.

She didn't know when the point of no return had come, let alone when she passed by it.

But it didn't matter now.

Nothing mattered now.

Not her laments, not her reasons for doing what she had done, not the person that was calling her on the phone for the fifth time in a row, not her life, or what was left of it, and certainly not her own emotions.

It simply didn't matter anymore.

Nothing she could do would help her anyways.

She closed her eyes, breathing deeply for the umpteenth time that night, before she pushed her head into the hole the rope made, the noose pressing against her fragile neck like a rough necklace.

It'd all be over soon, she thought to herself.

 _All she needed to do was take a step off of her chair..._

* * *

From the moment that she woke up that morning, the girl could tell she felt especially tired from the night before.

Even as her phone, made into her makeshift alarm clock, blared into her ear the daily sound to force her to come out of her slumber, the girl didn't want to get up.

Every fiber in her being told her of how her body yearned, oh so greatly, to return to that state of rest once more.

Yet, as a matter of habit, the young woman forced herself out of bed, groaning all the while, her eyes drooped groggily.

Despite her tiredness, she looked at the door to her room, it closed at that moment, and sighed softly.

"Thank God, I was actually able to stay asleep the whole night this time around." She said with a tone of relief.

Her father hadn't come inside in the middle of the night, and she smiled, her content with this, even with her half-night long sleep.

Closing her eyes, she slapped her cheeks twice, in an attempt to force herself to wake up, talking to herself all the while, "Wake up Kokona, wake up."

She stretched her arms over her head with closed eyes, grunting lowly within her throat, then lowered her arms, yawning heavily into her hand as she walked out of her room, the interior of the dark house giving her a fresh feeling of familiarity.

Hearing the sound of her father's snores from the living room, Kokona edged into the bathroom to get ready for school, careful not to wake the man sleeping downstairs.

A half hour later, one could find Kokona walking out of her home with her binder in hand, eyes set forward as she went.

Something felt off, Kokona thought to herself.

As she left her home and walked in the direction to her school, Kokona couldn't understand what could've possibly felt off to her.

At first she wondered if her intuition was warning her about something.

Whenever something bad was going to happen to her, or, in some cases, things she didn't necessarily like happening to her were going to happen, she would be able to feel it in her gut.

But before long, Kokona disregarded this notion.

She felt off, but it wasn't the same as a "gut-feeling" kind of off.

It couldn't have been her actions during the morning.

Though she couldn't replicate her actions to the dot every single day of her life, or even more than one day in her life really, her general routine had been completed while being in line with her habits.

Her efforts to figure out what exactly was wrong had a conscious flaw within them however, and Kokona knew it well.

She was ignoring the fact that she had stayed up for most of the night yesterday, she admitted to herself.

As she thought about the events of the night before, Kokona sighed heavily.

Things had went too far yesterday.

But it'd be fine, she told herself.

She'd just have to avoid doing that sort of thing again...

Unexpectedly, a wave of self-disgust went through her body, and she closed her eyes, looking down slightly.

Staring down at the ground for a long moment, Kokona involuntarily spoke a small curse to her father's drinking habits, knowing full well that had that never manifested itself, she never would've...

She shook the thoughts out of her head, opening her purple eyes and looking up at the path she was taking to school.

She had to get her mind off of it.

There'd be no point in letting her mind go off into the infinite world of "what-ifs", for she had taught herself that unlike some sci-fi flick, there would be no way of knowing whether said "what-if" scenarios would actually produce different results from what happened originally.

Kokona pulled her phone out, turning it on and watching her touch screen open up, seeing many apps sitting in front of her, waiting longingly to fulfill their purpose of utterly wasting her time.

She pressed one app, seeing it bring up a colorful screen that had a cheerful background behind it, with the words "Candy Crush Saga" showing up over a few title screen options.

From what Saki told her, this game was fairly simplistic yet addicting.

She had never played it before, yet remembering her best friend's description seemed to fit into what she was going to use it for.

Pressing the "Start" button, Kokona started playing, her mind becoming immersed in the game, with her subconsciously forgetting all about everything that had happened in the past twelve hours.

With a somewhat slackened pace, Kokona walked to school in this way.

It was only upon arriving at school that Kokona looked up completely from her phone, her gaze having been so engrossed in the game she was playing that her eyes felt weird at looking at anything else.

After she walked to her locker, it being close to the doors to the school to the right, swapped her shoes for her school issued ones, and started walking outside to the plaza in the center of her school whilst greeting her friends, Kokona caught a glimpse of a boy her age walking ahead of everyone else in the crowd.

Him facing away from everyone else, Kokona couldn't see his expression, but could tell from his body language that he seemed saddened, if not depressed.

Seeing this, Kokona felt no surprise.

Anyone would be depressed to find out that their childhood friend had been brutally murdered.

As she thought this, the boy turned himself around, him sitting down on the fountain of the plaza, him looking at everyone else who approached.

There was something off about his gaze though.

Usually there'd be a smile playing at his lips, him seeming somewhat happy to see everyone.

Yet now, the boy in front of her looked detached, if nothing else.

There was no smile of any kind on his face then, only a small frown.

Kokona had been walking towards him the entire time as she noticed this, her friends all behind her, and soon enough, the boy caught her eye as she passed by him.

For a moment they held each other's gaze as Kokona kept walking, circling around the fountain the boy sat on, and then at the next moment, she stopped, still holding his gaze with her own.

"Hey. Are you holding up okay Yamada?" Kokona asked, speaking the boy's last name out of reflex.

He forced a small smile that didn't look at all genuine, "Yeah, I'm fine Haruka."

She seemed tempted to say more, but couldn't find another thing to say.

Awkwardly, she muttered a small, "OK." before walking away, her friends all standing together in a group, an incomplete hexagon with her absence.

Upon walking next to a girl with red hair tied into a pony tail that stuck itself out of the side of her head, Kokona smiled slightly, it being a reflex she naturally had.

It was no surprise that she could find herself smiling here.

Here, with her friends, she would feel more relaxed, safely content with knowing that she was accepted among them for things other than her body or what she could bring into her home with.

The thought of this made the girl sad for two reasons.

On the one hand, she couldn't help wondering if her friends would accept her if they knew the things she'd done.

On the other hand, the girl felt sad as she wondered what her life would be like if she lost this simple luxury, of having friends who you could talk to without a care in the world.

Thinking of the second one, Kokona glanced over at the boy, sitting sadly on the fountain without anyone to talk to.

He never had many friends, other than Osana Naijimi, the girl that died.

While he kept a relationship with many people, they would always be a distance he kept that no one else could close except for Osana.

How sad it must've been, to no longer have one's friend to talk to.

Kokona's gaze filled with pity, a part of her wishing to be there for him but not knowing how to go about it.

It was at that moment that she felt her phone vibrating in her skirt pocket, her looking down in surprise at it as her ringtone blared through the air, her friends' attention going towards her as she pulled the phone out of her pocket.

Seeing that the number was blocked, her expression grew sour so quickly that she didn't even realize it.

Was that guy calling her again?

She looked up at her friends' curious faces, forcing a smile on her face before speaking quickly, "Sorry, I have to take this!"

Without waiting for a response from any of the five girls present, Kokona sprinted away from them, her footsteps making a clapping fill the air as she went, down the pathway leading to the school entrance, passing by a black haired girl who stood by the exit leading to the plaza, staring at her phone as she texted someone, not even taking notice of Kokona as she ran to the entrance doors and clicked on the green button on the screen of her phone, bringing it up to her ear.

She hoped it wasn't who she thought it was.

Despite her thinking this, all semblances of happiness, both genuine and forced, left Kokona's voice as she spoke into the phone, "Hello?"

"Hello." A man's voice replied.

Kokona's eyes narrowed as they looked at the phone, as though she could glare at the man on the other end of the line, her voicing her annoyance with a sound, "Ugh, I told you not to call me when I'm at school!"

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to talk about yesterday." The man spoke quickly to her. "I wanted to ask if we could -"

She was having none of it.

"Like I said, that was one time thing," she cut him off as she closed her eyes, "I don't wanna do that again!"

"Not even for 500,000 yen?" The man's voice wasn't surprised, though he sounded a bit excited.

Kokona's eyes widened.

"H-How much did you say?"

"500,000 yen." The man repeated. "Would you be willing to do it again for that much?"

For a short moment, Kokona paused.

Was that man really willing to give her that much money?

Her lips were moving before she could stop herself, "Well... if it's just one more time then... I guess it's okay..."

There was a smile in the man's voice, "Good to hear."

"... how about tonight?" Kokona mentally hit herself but spoke anyways. "Where we met last time? In Sisuta Town?"

"Yes. I'd love to."

"Okay then." Kokona said tonelessly, "See you tonight."

"See you then."

With that he hung up.

Kokona lowered her phone from her ear, putting it back in her skirt pocket, then brought her hands to her face, a harsh slap, cursing herself over and over and over again.

"I can't believe I'm doing this!" She said to herself.

After everything she told herself, she couldn't even say "no" when the time counted?

She closed her eyes, breathing in slowly to ease away her self-reproach.

Think of the money, she thought to herself.

It was 500,000 yen on the table now.

If she did this one more time, then she wouldn't have to do this again for a while.

The last few words of the above thought stuck in her mind.

Just how long would "a while" be?

Kokona sighed, turning around and walking away, passing again by the girl with black hair pulled back in a ponytail, Kokona not noticing her as the girl looked at her blankly.

Kokona walked past her, going into the plaza once more.

Ayano looked at the back of Kokona's head, then back to her phone, looking at the messages she'd recieved then.

 **Hey.  
It's me again.**

 _What do you want?_

 **I wanted to say you did well with getting rid of Osana-chan.  
You stabbed her so many times the police could never trace it to you unless they were guessing.**

 _How do you know?_

 **I'm Info-chan, remember? Little details like stab wounds are part of my job to know.**

 _Keep your congratulations. I shouldn't have hurt Osana so much._

 **What? But I thought for sure you would've been happy knowing your precious Senpai was safely yours.**

 _I would be. But with there being so many stab wounds, the police thought someone close to her did it. The police thought Senpai might've killed her now._

 **I see.  
Perhaps it'd be best not to go so out of control next time?**

 _What do you mean, "next time"?_

 **I'm saying your Senpai has more than one person eying him that isn't you.**

 _Someone else likes Senpai?_

 **Yes.**

 _Who?_

 **It's the girl that just ran past you.**

It had been at that point that a girl with purple hair put into two drill shaped locks ran past her, Ayano looking up at her then as she yelled at her phone one moment, then quickly quited down.

A few moments passed, and the girl started walking back towards the plaza, Ayano watching her for every step she took.

When she passed by her, Ayano looked at her phone again, it vibrating.

 **I can't give you a deadline for when she'll try to take your Senpai away like with Osana-chan.  
I can only tell you her name is Kokona Haruka. She's a third year, in your Senpai's class no less.**

 _So much for the name "Info-chan" if that's all you the info you can give me._

 **I never said I don't have more info on her. I'm saying that's all the info I'm willing to give for free.**

Ayano's eyes narrowed.

 _You want me to take more panty shots for you?_

 **Yes.**

 _Can't I give you something else?  
Preferably something that Senpai wouldn't think I'm weird for?_

 **Maybe.**

Ayano waited for another message to come, but for a few minutes, one never came.

She decided to humor the girl supplying her with information.

 _What exactly?_

 **That depends.  
While panty shots are excessively easy to get, if you can manage to send me a picture of them revealing more skin than that, I can give you more info.**

As soon as Ayano read this, she walked to stand in the middle of the exit into the plaza, her phone entering camera mode as she zoomed it in as much as possible while pointing the camera towards a group of gossiping girls, Kokona being among them, her taking a picture of a pair of one's legs.

The picture had been zoomed in to the point that it looked somewhat blurry and pixelated, but Ayano sent the picture to Info-chan anyways.

Immediately after sending it, she started another text, her question being genuine.

 _Is that enough skin for you?_

 **Cute.  
I'm not sure what's cuter. You being a smartass about what I said or you showing signs of actually being human.**

Had that been bitter sarcasm or genuine humor behind those words?

Ayano wasn't able to tell.

 _It's not like I'm a monster._

 **Someone who's a murderous psychopath isn't that far away from becoming that.**

Ayano gave no response to that, her blank expression remaining on her face.

 **Regardless, no, that's not what I meant.  
I meant that if you sent me pictures of a girl wearing less than their usual clothes, I could give you more info.**

 _You're saying that as if I can get them in the nude easily._

 **You don't know what a picture can do, Yan-chan. It's like you really. It may seem harmless, but in the right hands it can be quite damning.**

Ayano cared nothing for the fact that Info-chan was basically comparing her to a picture, with Ayano herself being on the more dehumanizing side of the simile, and asked a question she was more curious about.

 _"Yan-chan"?_

 **I wanted to give you a nickname. Considering you have one for me, it's only fair.**

 _About as fair as you knowing my real name and me not knowing yours._

There was an air of truth behind the girl's words, even if they lacked the emotions to fill them.

 **I know what I'm doing Yan-chan.**

Ayano looked up as the signal bell for class rang, and she looked back down on the phone she had.

 _Call me what you like, but just make sure your info is worth it._

 **Okay Yan-chan.  
Enjoy your class. I'm sure you'll learn something worth using later on.**

Info-chan turned off her phone then, looking at the computer and watching students walking through the halls towards their classes, turning the machine off before closing it, turning around in her chair before standing up, leaving the empty club room to go on about her day.

* * *

A/N: One chapter down.

If you're wondering, then you might notice that I made the text message conversation between Yandere-chan/Ayano and Info-chan coded for each of them. For Ayano her texts are italicized ( _like this_ ), while Info-chan's are in bold ( **like this** ).

If you're also wondering about the phone conversation between Kokona and the man, 500,000 yen is equivalent to $4,226.76 in U.S. Dollars and roughly 3,889 Euros.

While I tend to make a point of not making OCs be put in my posted fanfiction, this one will have one.

If I go into light detail, the OC is only what Kokona is in the debug builds of the game so far, him being the character that can be paired up by Yandere-chan to be the replacement the Rival has for Senpai.

Granted, they don't become a pairing in this story, but the OC's only going to be in here to fulfill the simple "Rival's Love Interest" purpose.


	2. Suitor

The hours passed by Kokona in a blur.

Her mind was heavily preoccupied with the subject of the phone call she recieved minutes before the time came for people to go to class, and many times she found herself wishing for a time machine to appear before her, so that she could keep herself from saying yes to a wealthy man who didn't have it within himself to ask someone closer to his own age out on a date.

She silently cursed herself for her fragile state and the man for his lack of a means of being infatuated with others who weren't significantly younger than he was.

So engrossed in these thoughts, her teacher's lesson came in through one ear and left right out of the other for her, her holding her head up on her palm and staring absentmindedly at the teacher as she did her job.

When the bell for lunch rang throughout the school, Kokona was in the middle of wondering whether she could call the man who she'd set an appointment with and cancel it, only to remember she couldn't call a blocked phone number.

Mentally berating herself in a mixture of self-loathing and guilt, Kokona gave a troubled expression to her desk.

"Kokona?"

It was only at the sound of the young woman's voice that Kokona broke from her long lapse from reality.

Leaning her head off of her palm, Kokona looked up to find that it was Saki who called her name, her being a girl that held a great resemblance to the Vocaloid character Miku Hatsune, bright blue pig tails and all.

The memory of why Saki started wearing her hair in this manner, when, even with her pig tails, it nearly reached her waist, was rather strange, Kokona recalled.

It had been half a year ago, during exam season, and Saki had been having trouble studying due to her hair's long length.

During that time, she would only brush her long hair down, and it reached well past her waist.

As a result of it being so long, Saki would spend more time adjusting her hair so it wouldn't hinder her studying than on studying itself.

When the girl couldn't take the stress of it anymore, she decided to wear her hair in pig tails, which immediately had positive and negative consequences.

On the positive side of things, Saki never had to struggle with studying anymore.

On the negative side of things, there was no escaping the people who compared her to Miku on sight.

She seemed to be unaffected by this at first, so Kokona let her be after asking if Saki was okay when put under the teasing, to which she said she was fine.

It only took a week for signs saying the opposite to pop up.

On the Monday following her hairstyle change, Saki would sit at a table with her head on her cheek, her and all the friends that made up their group, sans Kokona, sitting at a table as the purple haired girl made food for everyone.

The presence of a problem existing for Saki was evident to those present, but no one said a word about it.

Kokona probably felt the strongest compulsion to question what was wrong with her friend, among others.

Kokona could see Koharu, a girl with green hair and eyes who was a year younger than Saki, looking over at the Miku-lookalike from the opposite corner of the table, but, like Kokona, she said nothing.

The same went for Mei, a girl with blue hair that was in the same class as Koharu, as well as Yuna and Yui, girls who, at that time, were in their last year of middle school with gold and red hair respectively.

The fact that Saki said nothing in the conversation made it all the more strange a situation.

While she wasn't known for her extroverted nature, that was assuming she had one to begin with, she would always contribute to the conversation by at least being the listener of the spoken topics.

When Kokona finished making food for everyone, she would carry the platter while looking intently at Saki, who stared absentmindedly at the wall.

The proof that everyone wanted to ask what made Saki this way came to Kokona in the numerous glances everyone would make, it becoming like a domino effect.

Someone, typically Koharu, would glance over at Saki, and someone focused even somewhat on her would follow her gaze, the same happening to someone else until everyone was looking over at Saki.

In retrospect, it seemed both understandable and weird that Kokona would whisper her questioning to her friend.

"Saki, are you okay?" She asked, leaning down to look the girl in the eyes.

She didn't respond for a moment, not even meeting Kokona's gaze, before she lifted her head, her expression tired, her gazing back up at her with a strange look in her eye, "I'm just tired."

"Tired from what?" Kokona asked for elaboration.

The turning of four heads in their direction only solidified any belief Kokona had that the girls around Saki wanted to ask the same thing.

"Tired from stress. Tired from pressure. Tired from people in general." Saki said in a monotone that creeped Kokona out somewhat.

"Why are you tired of people?" Yui asked.

"People keep saying that I'm a Miku Hatsune lookalike. It's pretty tiring after a while." Saki replied in that same monotone, her eyes empty irises.

"Why did you put your hair up like that in the first place?" Mei asked.

It was then that Saki explained that her hair made it harder for her to study, and in a hope to help the situation, she tied her hair in pig tails.

"Can't you just cut it?" Yui asked.

"I'd like to keep my hair long." As though to emphasize these words, Saki stroked her right pig tail.

Several moments of questioning passed the group by, and eventually, Saki apparently decided she'd had enough of it, standing up suddenly.

"I'm sorry. I need to go to the Computer Club now. I'll see you guys later."

Without waiting for an answer, Saki left the room, her head lowered by a certain angle.

The remaining five were left in silence to the girl's absence.

It was almost customary for the group to come together, even if some of them were sick, on as regular a basis as possible.

On their free days, they would go out together, simply hanging out with one another, and, more recently, upon more than half of the group entering Akademi, they regularly met on Mondays while Kokona cooked for everyone.

For one of them to leave early was understandable, but Kokona was skeptical that Saki would need to leave an hour early just to climb the two sets of stairs that would lead to the Computer Clubroom.

As a result of this unprecedented event, Kokona suggested the first thing to come to mind as a result of Saki being so upset by this.

The next day would find Saki walking behind Koharu and Mei as they walked side by side.

She noticed that something was different about the two when she saw their hair.

"Hey, guys?" She called out to them, jogging slightly to catch up, even as they stopped to turn to her.

"Yes Saki?" Mei asked.

"Why is your hair different?" Saki asked immediately, looking between Mei and Koharu's hairstyles.

The duo shared a look, Koharu having her hair in pig tails that were obviously several times smaller than Saki's, and Mei having a similar hairstyle, only she had an additional tiny pig tail tied behind her head.

They looked back at their senpai in unison, and Koharu said, "We thought it might help you."

"Really?"

"Yes." Mei nodded her confirmnation.

"Why?"

"You seemed pretty out of it yesterday. We thought maybe if we had weird hairstyles that it'd help too." Koharu explained.

Saki found irony in the fact that Koharu looked rather normal compared to herself and Mei, but said nothing of it.

Instead, she spoke on the topic at hand.

"Thanks guys, but really, you didn't need to do anything like this for me." Saki smiled despite this.

"That's a bummer then." Kokona's voice said behind her.

Saki turned, and found that instead of her regular hair, Kokona now sported two symmetrical drill shaped pieces of hair that stuck out of her head.

Blinking at the sight, Saki didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Kokona?"

"Yes?"

"Why is your hair like that?"

"Well," Saki watched Kokona reach up and tug on her drills, "My hair isn't as long as everyone else's, so this was all I could think to do."

"But why?" Saki asked incredulously.

"Why?" It was Kokona's turn to be incredulous. "I spent half the night trying to get my hair right so my friend wouldn't feel weird and you're asking why I did it?"

"Well..."

As Saki trailed off, Kokona sighed overdramatically.

Shrugging nonchalantly, she spoke with a playful smile, "Oh well, if you really didn't want us doing this in a group, I guess I stayed up late for nothing."

Saki blinked in surprise.

Then she smiled.

"Thanks guys. It means a lot that you'd do that for me." Saki smiled at Koharu and Mei, then Kokona, "I'll study hard so this doesn't go to waste."

"It's nothing. Don't even mention it." Kokona walked past her friends, pressing her hand in her skirt pocket to avoid them seeing the burner burns she had on her fingertips, a result of her many failed attempts at putting her hair in drills.

After testing ended, Saki went back to her old hairstyle, and with this accomplished, the group knew they could return to their regular hairstyles as well.

However, all members quickly realized that they felt off with their hairstyles back to normal.

When Kokona realized she didn't need to change her hair anymore, her having made to school revealed it was already too late to go back to normal, and the other members of the group took this as a sign of her encouraging them to keep their hairstyles strange.

Six months later, into the present, the group of friends Kokona had only worn their hair out of habit, but over time it had become a type of symbol, strange as it was, for their friendship.

Memories of this brought a genuine smile to Kokona's face, only for Saki's voice to cut into her new lapse from reality.

"Kokona, are you okay?" Saki asked her friend, who had a somewhat glazed expression now.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine." Kokona replied a bit hastily, "Ready to eat lunch?"

Upon reaching the rooftop and meeting up with her friends, Kokona felt herself making herself at home among the hexagon they made as they stood together.

Their talk was much of the same usual things; stories from their break were shared among each other, tales of how they spent it varying.

Kokona was fully immersed in the conversation until she caught a glimpse of a boy with shaggy black hair walking by, him carrying that same somewhat detached air that he had hours ago in the school plaza.

He walked to a bench, sitting down by himself and beginning to eat, him not showing any signs of happiness as this happened.

The other girls in the group caught onto Kokona's gaze, and they looked back at her, their expressions mirroring Kokona's feelings of pity.

"That's right, that Naijimi girl got murdered last week, right?" Yui asked, her red eyes cast slightly downward, her voice now several tones more serious.

"Yeah." Mei hugged herself. "I heard she was stabbed to death."

"Didn't she have a pretty bad falling out with that guy over there?" Yui asked while glancing back at the boy.

"Yes. I'm not surprised he looks so sad now." Koharu looked over at him now, "It can't be easy, having to live with the fact that your last memory of your best friend is fighting with her."

Needless to say, she meant this in the way of one who was in a bad argument with someone else, the kind that threatened to destruct any chances of both parties being on friendly terms again into contrition.

If one considered that Taro Yamada's relationship to Osana Naijimi was that of best friendship, this type of argument would normally be seen as good.

Both Taro and Osana could argue with the knowledge that they could go to that extent and still be friends afterwards, even if there was a point in time when tension existed.

Such was the beauty of having a best friend.

But in the case of where such arguments went unforgiven by each party, this would most often fester regret and guilt within the parties involved.

This was the tragic case of Taro Yamada's life.

His final memory of his best friend not being one of happiness, nor of hope.

It was only of a now perpetually regrettable argument, which could never be taken back.

The air between the six members of the group had visibly darkened, and seeing this whilst looking among her friends, Saki clapped her hands loudly, everyone jumping in surprise as they looked at her.

Her eyes were closed as she started to speak, "Look, I know we've gossipped about a lot of things before, but let's not delve too deep into this, okay?"

She opened her eyes, lowering her hands and meeting each of her friends in the eye, "What happened is awful, that's true, but it won't do us any good to brood on it. I can imagine Yamada is in a bad enough position as it is without us getting too nosy."

All of those present knew very well what Saki meant.

The day after Osana died, police had come into the school and called Yamada down for questioning.

The first sign that something had been wrong was when Yamada came back into class while being visibly shook up by whatever happened.

After that, the enigmatic "Info-chan" started spreading a rumor about what had happened.

As curiosity rose, people would come by to question him about the matter to see if it was true.

True to form, Info-chan's information was spot on, as Yamada's answers to such questions were true, though it was naturally marred somewhat by the spread of rumors.

Some thought Yamada had been questioned by the police as a suspect for Osana's death, which was the truth.

Others heard differently.

Some would hear that Yamada had in fact killed his best friend, others would hear that he was really happy to be without Naijimi, and was only putting on an act, and others would think other outrageous things.

Many wanted to ask Yamada himself in order to get the facts straight, but common sense coupled with a look at the state he was in would tell most that this wasn't the wisest decision.

Not everyone was aware of this however.

The people either so curious or so dumb to think Yamada would answer questions about his involvement in Naijimi's death became the physical embodiment to the metaphor "twisting the knife in the wound" for him.

This was probably the reason he stuck to himself, even moreso than before.

There once again came another wave of pity that welled inside of Kokona as she glanced over at her classmate.

"Can we at least agree on that everyone?" Saki asked her friends.

There was a general sound of affirmation for four out of the five people Saki spoke to.

Noticing this, Saki looked over at Kokona, her still staring at Yamada.

By that point, he had already met Kokona's eyes, and they held each other's gaze for a moment.

She smiled in as much of a comforting way as she could to him, and Yamada forced a smile back, looking back down at his lunch and eating it.

Kokona looked away from him, her blinking in surprise when she saw all of her friends looking at her now.

"Kokona?" Saki's voice called her, and she looked at her friend in confusion.

"Yes?"

"Did you hear what I just said?"

She gave a sheepish look at Saki, shaking her head.

"Are you okay?" Yui asked, Kokona turning to look at the red head.

"I'm fine, why?" Kokona asked.

"You seem to be going out of it more and more lately." Yuna said honestly.

Kokona blinked in surprise, looking at the blonde, before looking around at her other friends, "Have I really?"

"You have actually." Mei said, looking away slightly.

"You keep having this weird look. Almost like your mind's completely somewhere else." Koharu added.

"Oh." Kokona smiled reassuringly at them. "It's fine. I'm fine. Just a bit distracted is all."

"Is it a guy that's making you act so strange?"

Kokona looked over at Yui's question, and the girl with drill shaped locks saw that the red was genuinely curious.

"No, it's not that." She said, shaking her head, her knowing this to be a lie.

Yamada accounted for her not paying attention then, but Kokona knew that this wasn't always the case.

That man who paid her to go out with him had that position, sad as that sounded.

"Are you sure?" Yui looked behind herself, at Yamada. "You seem to look at him whenever you space out like you just did."

"I'm sure." Kokona said after following Yui's gaze, her face not reddened at all when she realized what her underclassman was implying.

The purple haired girl had realized her feelings towards Yamada were of the romantic type well over a year ago, so her feeling that way towards him didn't mean that she was acting strangely for that reason.

"If you say so." Yui said, there being a note of skepticism in her voice as she shrugged.

Kokona mentally sighed, deciding not to say anything.

"Kokona, could I talk to you for a moment?" Saki asked.

As Kokona turned to the girl with pale blue hair, Saki's expression, laced with urgency, told her that she needed to talk with her at that moment.

Realizing this, Kokona nodded.

* * *

Ayano spent the first several minutes of lunch time moving towards the third years' floor, her eyes scanning the stairs as she looked for Kokona Haruka.

The person she saw first instead made her stop on the stairs, her heart stopping for a brief moment as he walked in front of her.

She breathed slowly, a person passing her by stopping next to her.

"Are you okay Aishi?"

She looked over at him, it being a green haired boy who she'd forgotten the name of, and she molded her face into a false smile, it being a perfect mask of a sheepish expression, "Yes, sorry."

The boy seemed a bit unconvinced, but didn't press the subject, walking past her whilst making occasional glances behind himself at her.

She held her smile up until he was out sight, then dropped it, her expression falling into a straight face.

When she was sure no one else was there to hear, she sighed heavily, trying to replicate the frustration she imagined other people who were normal would probably feel in that moment.

She felt absolutely nothing.

She looked up at the top of the staircase, eyes narrowing themselves.

Again, she had been reminded of the fact that she felt no emotions unless her Senpai was added into the equation.

Many times since she first saw him, Ayano repeatedly experimented with herself to make sure her feeling emotion for the first time wasn't coincidentally tied to her Senpai being in there.

Regardless of what she did, the result was the same, her being an emotionless shell without Senpai being involved.

It was somewhat depressing, she thought to herself.

At least, this was what she imagined someone who had emotions would think.

Why did she feel this need to make sure her Senpai would be hers?

She wondered this as she thought of the fact that she could only feel emotions when Senpai was involved, and that she felt absolutely fine without having emotions for all her life beforehand.

She made it her mission to appear normal to everyone, because she was aware of just how scary the idea of someone without emotions was to people.

Was that the reason?

Did she not want to have to keep up a mask to avoid people being afraid of her?

She softly shook her head of that thought.

No, she didn't even care about people to that extent at all.

She could pretend to, as much as she liked, but this simple lack of caring for anyone was unmistakable.

Even her parents weren't of any exception to that.

As she thought about it, Ayano realized she might have subconsciously disliked the experience of being empty of emotion for her entire life.

She never felt any sort of longing for emotion, but then, she somehow knew, deep down, she would enjoy life a bit more if she was with emotions.

Though she couldn't feel psychological emotions, she knew she felt physical things, like every other person.

Like everyone else, she had limits for everything.

She couldn't do more than a certain number of sit-ups for example, nor were her grades perfect.

She went through her entire life without feeling any of the simple emotions people had.

Even if she didn't feel them, she realized constantly pretending to have emotions she didn't have was tiring for her.

Perhaps the only emotion she had before meeting Senpai was curiosity.

She would wonder many times what it'd feel like to have emotions.

What would it feel like, she pondered, to study for a test for weeks on end, only to have that moment where one looked at their score and see they hadn't scored perfectly?

Would the natural reaction be a form of frustration?

Anger even?

And what would it feel like to embarass oneself in front of others, or to realize they would know your darkest secret?

Would one naturally feel dread? Or fear?

She reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone, remembering the person who claimed to be Info-chan.

Info-chan was really the closest thing she could call to her friend, Ayano realized.

She somehow knew what her darkest secret was, was willing to help her with her goals, and had even given her a nickname.

At the same time, it wasn't as though Info-chan wasn't without her own secrets.

Ayano turned on her phone, clicking on an app Info-chan had made, her seeing a chart come up with pictures of several members of the student body there, arranged in the order she recieved them in.

The very first one was a picture of a silhouette, it having long red hair and red rectangular rimmed glasses.

This was the picture of Info-chan that the girl provided to Ayano.

The reason Ayano assumed Info-chan was a girl, besides the feminine "chan" she gave to herself, was the recorded message that would play upon Ayano pressing on her picture.

Doing it again, Ayano watched her phone screen get filled with static, a recorded message playing through a girl's voice.

 _"Trying to look up my information? Don't bother."_ It said, almost mockingly. _"There's nothing you need to know about me. You're a client, and I'm a provider. That's all we need to know about each other."_

With this, the recording ended, and the chart of students returned to normal, along with her phone screen.

Ayano imagined she'd feel creeped out if she had emotions upon first hearing the message.

Having heard the message again, Ayano mentally shrugged to herself.

To say Info-chan was the closest thing to a friend she had didn't necessarily mean that there was any emotion or attachment between them.

After all, Info-chan was right.

Ayano was using Info-chan as much as Info-chan was using her, maybe even more so.

Like the pervert had said, Ayano was just a client.

She looked up at the stairs, recalling her wish to have her Senpai.

Even if it had been some form of love at first sight, Ayano knew she didn't enjoy life without emotion, and Senpai was her only means of feeling emotions.

She had to make sure her Senpai wouldn't be taken away by anyone.

She didn't care what she had to do make certain of that.

She'd have to avoid getting her Senpai in trouble for killing again though.

Thinking this, Ayano started walking up the stairs, going onto the rooftop and looking for Kokona.

The rooftop was made up of a square perimeter for the school, Ayano exiting onto the northeastern corner of the school.

Upon reaching the rooftop, Ayano saw Kokona walking away from her group of friends, another third year walking ahead of her.

Standing a bit away from Kokona's group was Senpai, him eating out of his bento as he sat on a bench.

Another girl walked towards him, and looking at her, Ayano realized Kuu Dere, a girl with sky blue hair and red eyes, was walking towards her Senpai, lunch in hand.

Seeing this, Ayano watched the girl closely, her talking to Senpai.

She couldn't read her lips as she talked, but Senpai looked surprised for a moment, him nodding before scooting over on the bench, Kuu Dere sitting on the opposite end of the bench from him.

Ayano continued to stare at the spectacle, but decided to leave it alone, returning her attention to Kokona.

She was walking on the east side of the school, following her friend to the southeastern corner.

Seeing this, Ayano followed them at a safe distance, her hand traveling into her skirt's right side, fingers brushing against a knife blade.

* * *

As Saki walked to the back corner of the school, behind a large metal casing, with Kokona in tow, Kokona asked her friend the obvious question.

"What is it you wanted to talk about?"

Saki turned to face Kokona, her expression serious.

"You haven't been acting like your usual self lately. Is something bothering you?"

Kokona blinked in surprise, but felt her lips moving before she could think.

"Oh... well... it's nothing..."

Her words came out unconvincingly, and it showed on Saki's expression.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine." Kokona relaxed somewhat at Saki's words. "But remember, I'm your friend, and I'd never judge you for anything."

Kokona was silent for a moment, but nodded.

Hesitance welled within her, but she forced herself to be honest.

"I guess... there's one thing I'd like to talk about."

"I'm listening."

Kokona closed her eyes, mentally sighing, before opening her eyes again, meeting the expectant gaze of Saki.

"... Ever since my mom died, my dad's been drinking a lot." She looked away again, reaching up and grasping her left elbow. "Sometimes, when he's drunk, he comes into my room and..."

She trailed off, her eyes snapping closed again, before she threw her head back, "Ugh, forget I said anything. I really, really don't want to talk about it."

Saki's eyes were wide.

"What? That sounds really serious!" Kokona didn't meet her eyes as she exclaimed this. "What does your dad do to you?"

"Look, I said I don't want to talk about it. Just leave it alone, okay?" Kokona said a bit more forcefully.

"You haven't done anything to be ashamed of. Just tell me what's wrong!" Saki persisted.

If only she knew, Kokona thought mirthlessly.

"I'm not gonna say anything else." Kokona lowered her head. "Please... just drop it."

It seemed Saki realized the futility in persisting further.

She did nothing to hide her sigh.

"If you say so. But now I'm really worried."

Kokona sighed softly, closing her eyes.

Then there came an indistinct yell.

Both girls looked up at one another at the sound, and seconds later, another yell was heard.

Wondering what it was, Kokona and Saki started walking back towards the source of the yell, doing this quickly as they saw a small crowd forming near the other corner opposite to theirs, never knowing that Ayano had listened in on their conversation and left immediately after the scream.

As they reached the crowd, they found Mei there, and the duo walked to her.

"Mei, what's going on?" Saki asked, the girl turning to them.

"I think someone's stuck inside the maze." Mei turned to look at the crowd that looked over the maze near the front of the school.

Another yell came, it being a word that no one could understand.

Saki walked closer to the crowd, looking over the maze to find that there was a boy with a dark tan that jumped high in the air every other moment, him seeming to be moving around inside of the maze with each jump.

Saki looked at the entrance to the maze, finding Koharu standing there with a teacher next to her, the older woman yelling into the maze.

The boy seemed to move closer and closer to the exit every few seconds, and eventually, the boy reached it.

Upon appearing there, he collapsed on the ground, on his hands and knees, breathing heavily.

Koharu walked to his side, kneeling down and offering him a hand.

After looking up at her, he accepted her hand, getting back up while saying something inaudible to her.

The teacher started speaking to him then, after saying something to Koharu that made her nod and walk away, and seeing that the apparent issue was resolved, the small crowd dispersed.

Saki remained there for a moment longer, watching the teacher speaking to the boy, him not seeming to have much to respond.

Realizing there wasn't much left to do, Saki turned away from the corner of the school building, walking back to her friends, finding Yui and Yuna to be there too now.

"It looks like he got out of there safely." Saki said to the four as she came into earshot.

"I wonder why he was even in the maze to begin with." pondered Yuna audibly, Saki glancing behind herself when she heard the door leading to the rooftop open itself, Koharu walking back to the outdoor world and to them.

She breathed a heavy sigh as she neared them, then smiled at everyone, "Hey guys. Sorry I left without saying anything."

"It's fine." Yuna waved her hand nonchalantly. "We all know how you get whenever someone needs help."

Koharu laughed somewhat sheepishly at that.

* * *

Ayano walked down the stairs quickly, her typing in a text to Info-chan.

 _I think I might have some new info about Kokona Haruka you could use._

She only needed to wait for half a minute before she felt her phone vibrate.

 **If it's about her taking part in compensated dating then you're out of luck.**

Ayano felt no interest in the information just given to her, simply replying.

 _I'm in luck then._  
 _Do you have anything on her parents?_

 **I tend to not care about details concerning student-parent relationships unless necessary.**  
 **Can I assume I should care about her parents?**

 _Maybe._  
 _She said her mom died some time ago, and her dad's a drunk who comes into her room every so often._

 **He goes in there when he's drunk?**

 _Yes, from what Kokona said._

 **What does he do to her?**

 _She didn't say._

 **I don't think this is enough to count as useful information.**  
 **Thanks for trying to help me though. Your efforts are acknowledged.**  
 **Would you mind me asking why she told you this?**

 _She didn't. I heard her talking to her friend._

 **Saki Miyu?**

 _Who?_

 **A female upperclassman with bright blue hair tied into two big pigtails like she's Miku Hatsune?**

 _I don't know who that is._

There came a long moment of silence, before Ayano's phone vibrated again.

Looking at her phone, she saw a picture of an anime girl wearing large pig tails in her bright cyan-blue hair.

Then came another text.

 **That's Miku Hatsune. Did she look like her?**

 _Yes._  
 _It's weird how alike they look._

 **Everyone's noticed by now.**  
 **Anyways, it makes sense that Kokona would tell Saki about that.**

 _Why?_

 **Saki has been best friends with Kokona since middle school. They've done all they could to keep from being seperated into different classes for the past few years.**

 _You've been keeping tabs for that long?_

 **Not really. I just know a few things from firsthand experience.**  
 **Regardless, the information you've given me won't be useful to me.**

 _Could I ask you a question?_

 **What?**

 _Do you know where I can get an envelope for a letter?_

 **Why?**

 _I need to give one to Kokona._

 **For what?**  
 **You don't have a thing for her now, do you?**

 _Of course not._  
 _I wanted to give her a letter telling her that I want to talk to her about domestic abuse._

 **Why?**  
 **Your dad seems harmless to insects, much less you.**

Ayano decided not to question the girl about the last comment.

 _You don't need to know._

 **Alright, fine. Where do you plan to meet her?**

 _You don't need to know._

 **I'm going to if I'm writing this letter for you.**

 _You don't have to do that._

 **It's my envelope. I'll do what I please with it.**

 _Are you bored or something?_

 **In a way. I'm a bit more curious about how you handle this rival for your Senpai's affection than the others.**

 _There you go again with there being more than one person pining after Senpai. Can't you tell me who they all are so I can get rid of them quicker?_

 **What would you do with that information? Use the knife you're carrying in your pocket to stab them all to death?**

Ayano narrowed her eyes at her phone, her reaching the bottom of the stairs now.

 **I'm right, aren't I?**  
 **I can't have you screwing yourself over with something like this. Knowing how good of an actor you are, you'd try to make it out so I'd be the one forcing you to do all the awful things you're planning in that emotionless brain of yours.**  
 **I'd much rather give as much responsibility to you as possible.**

 _How hurtful._  
 _I wouldn't do something like that to you Info-chan._

Ayano felt herself mentally say this sarcastically.

 **Some risks aren't meant to be taken.**  
 **This is one of those risks.**

 _Wonderful._

 **Could you be so kind as to tell me what the meeting place will be Yan-chan?**

Seeing the equally sarcastically nice reply, Ayano relented details for her idea.

 _Tell her to go to the roof._

 **At what time?**

 _Say 4:00._

 **I don't think that's a good time.**

 _Why?_

 **She's never free until 4:30 after school, or not on Mondays at least.**

 _I see._  
 _Tell her at 4:35 then._

 **Another question.**

 _What?_

 **Which part of the rooftop do you want her to go to?**  
 **Just saying "the rooftop" is pretty vague.**

At this point, Ayano realized that flaw.

 _Say to go to the part of the roof behind that metal case, the corner closest to that old Sakura tree._

 **Okay.**

As Ayano walked for a minute longer, she felt her phone vibrate again.

 **Is this satisfactory?**

Accompanied with Info-chan's text was a picture of the note.

" _Please come meet me on the roof at the corner closest to the Sakura tree at 4:35. I want to talk about my domestic abuse._ " She mouthed to herself.

 _I'd guess so._

 **Good.**

 _Should I pick it up from wherever you are?_

 **No need to worry. I'll bring it to her locker.**

 _Why?_

 **I need to be there anyway.**

 _Why?_

 **Did you hear about the guy who got lost in the maze a few minutes back?**

 _No._

 **Since he's a transfer student, I know next to nothing about him. Since I'm Info-chan, my reputation must be upheld.**

 _Alright. Go on about your info business.  
Another question though. Why are you wearing gloves?_

 **Fingerprints can be damning thing if people have the right evidence.**

 _I can understand that logic. Sort of._

 **If I treat every little crime like the best detectives in the world will be on my case, I assume I'll be fine.**

 _Suit yourself._

Having reached the bottom floor, Ayano immediately turned around, walking up the stairs again.

Info-chan obviously didn't want Ayano to know what her face looked like, so in regards to her doing this favor, she decided the normal thing to do would be to leave the info broker to her own devices.

With so little time left in her lunch period, it'd be better to go back to class and carry out the rest of her idea when she had more free time.

Having thought this, Ayano returned to her classroom, ignorant to the girl with long red locks of hair staring at her from across the long hallway through her red rimmed glasses, her red eyes gazing at her client as she disappeared up the stairs.

"Alright. Let's see what the fuss from this guy is about." Info-chan whispered to herself, her luminescent smile dropping as she looked towards the entrance of the school, walking forward as she looked around the corner.

Finding that no one had entered yet, Info-chan went to shoe locker that belonged to Kokona Haruka, opening it and placing the sealed envelope on top of her shoes.

After closing the locker and double checking to make sure it was Kokona's, Info-chan turned, walking outside and going towards where the maze was, finding the boy still there with the teacher.

Her voice became distinctly more reserved, her speaking to the teacher, "Excuse me, teacher?"

The woman turned to her, brown eyes narrowed, "Yes?"

"Were you planning on taking this boy to the counselor?"

"Yes, at least I wanted to." She sighed, turning to face the boy again. "He can understand what we're saying, but his Japanese speech isn't too strong."

The boy gave an off-put expression at this.

Was he a type of person with a "Loner" Persona? Info-chan pondered.

"That's fine." She responded to the teacher, looking at the boy with a curious expression. "Do you have any other languages you're fluent in?"

He nodded after giving her a curious look, him pulling out a phone and typing into it.

When he finished typing into it, he showed Info-chan the screen.

" _Yes, English and Arabic._ "the phone read.

"Do you know English?" Info-chan looked at her teacher again.

"I do know some. But I can't say that I'm fluent in it."

"Okay." She turned to look at the boy again. "Can you tell me what you're trying to tell her in English?"

He took a second of thought before speaking.

 _"Yes. She wanted me to tell her why I was in the maze, and I wanted to say that I was exploring and only wanted to look around before getting lost."_

Info-chan nodded, looking at the teacher again, her processing the boy's words still.

"He was only exploring before getting lost." She said, and the teacher nodded, looking at the boy again.

"Do you know which class you're in?" She asked him.

 _"I'm in Class 2-1."_

"He's in Class 2-1." She interpreted again.

"I see. I'll have to talk with your teacher then." The woman sighed, looking at her wrist watch before looking at Info-chan once more, "I'll need to leave bringing him to the counselor to you. Can you do that?"

Info-chan nodded, watching the woman running away from them.

She could understand it.

It was almost time for class after all.

"Are you ready to go?" Info-chan asked the boy.

 _"Yes. Lead the way miss."_

 _"I'm not sure I like you calling me miss."_ Info-chan replied in perfect English, crossing her arms.

 _"What would you like me to call you then?"_

Info-chan simply told him her real name.

 _"Okay. I can call you that."_ The boy nodded again.

 _"Could you tell me your name?"_

 _"Kai Nasir. It's nice to meet you."_ Kai smiled in a friendly manner to her, and she returned the smile.

 _"Likewise."_

* * *

 **A/N: At last, finished.**

 **I imagine that some of the characterization might've seemed OOC for some of the people reading this at times though. Hopefully you can bear with me.**

 **If I must be upfront however, these are the following things I'm trying to do with certain characters.**

 **\- Saki's going to serve as a kind of "group Mom" kind of character  
\- Kokona is supposed to be a mixture of what I can see of her current personality and the speculated personality she's supposed to have should she become a full fledged rival  
\- ****Info-chan and Ayano's conversations are supposed to be their own version of what a buddy-cop show would be like if they were the main characters (which would probably involve them being the criminals in the full irony of this comparison)  
\- Koharu (the girl with green hair tied into twin pig tails) is supposed to be the most outgoing of Kokona's friends, as well as the most caring  
\- Mei (the girl with blue hair tied into three pig tails) is supposed to be the foil to Yui (the girl with red hair tied into a ponytail sticking out of the side of her head), in that Mei is more quiet and reserved and Yui is more outspoken and blunt**

Hopefully you've enjoyed this chapter. Until next time.


	3. The First Attempt

As she guided him to the counselor's office, Info-chan wasn't sure what to make of this transfer student.

He seemed to be of Middle-Eastern descent, and his lack of a verbal fluency with Japanese implied that he was either a foreigner or someone who was just bad at speaking.

She realized very quickly that this exact moment wasn't the opportune time to decide what his Persona was, though she personally wished this wasn't the case.

It would be natural for anyone to have the social awkward tendencies of a "Loner" or a "Coward" when making a transfer to a new school.

She saw Kai's eyes scanning the building around himself, adjusting to his new surroundings.

 _"Did you move to Japan recently?"_ Info-chan asked him in the English tongue curiously.

His eyes snapped back to hers, and he nodded lightly.

 _"Yes."_ He replied.

She waited for him to give her a time scale as to how long that was, but he didn't seem to understand the questioning gaze she gave.

 _"How long ago?"_ She asked at last.

He gave it a moment of thought.

 _"I'd say about a month ago."_ Kai's expression was pensive. _"My dad wanted me to move here so I could get a better education than I could back home."_

 _"Where did you live?"_ Info-chan asked.

Her curiosity was an act, she acknowledged this, but like Ayano, the whole personality she showed then was an act.

If she immediately asked the questions she wanted to, she'd sound markedly weird.

To her surprise, his expression notably darkened for a moment.

He didn't meet her eyes as he answered her.

 _"I lived in Afghanistan."_

She mentally raised an eyebrow at how uncomfortable the idea of his old home made him, but didn't say anything about it.

On the surface, she simply smiled happily. _"Regardless, it's good to have you here at Akademi High School."_

His expression returned to normal, and he smiled sheepishly, _"Yeah, thank you."_

By now they were close to the counselor's office, and Info-chan looked at him again, _"Okay, this is the office. This is where I'll have to go."_

He looked at the office doors, and he looked back at her, smiling gratefully, speaking, in Japanese, a shaky, "Thank you."

Info-chan nodded, "You're welcome."

She made a show of walking away for a moment, before her face lit up in false realization, and she turned, lightly grasping his hand from behind.

To her surprise, the boy jerked around at her hand's touch, his eyes suddenly hardened as he gripped her wrist tightly, his free hand reaching to his side, before his eyes widened in realization.

 _"S-Sorry."_ He apologized sheepishly, letting go of her hand and stepping away from her.

What was with him? Info-chan mentally asked.

The way he glared at her screamed ruthlessless incarnate, and he hardly seemed like he was conscious of the movement, as if her touching him had scraped against some type of reflex he had.

Coupled with the way he seemed to come with a realization of where he was again - almost as if he'd forgotten he was in school to begin with - it seemed almost as though he'd been having an episode where he was expecting someone to do something bad to him.

For a moment longer, Info-chan stared at him, her bewilderment not an act at all.

Then she smirked, grasping her wrist and moving her hand around in an exxagerated motion, _"My my, aren't you a little stimulated?"_

 _"Sorry. I-I wasn't thinking."_ He stammered, obviously surprised at himself.

Info-chan waved her hand nonchalantly, _"Calm down, it's fine. Just be careful. I write with this hand after all."_

 _"Okay."_ He looked away again, then back up at her. _"Did you forget something?"_

 _"Could I take your picture?"_ Info-chan asked, pulling her phone out of her skirt pocket.

He blinked, looking between the phone and her, _"Why?"_

 _"I wanted to remember you more easily. Taking pictures helps me do that."_ While this was only a half-truth, it was still the truth nonetheless.

He looked between the phone and her a few times with a weird look.

 _"You go around taking pictures of people's faces to remember them more easily?"_ He asked curiously.

 _"Of course I don't."_ She didn't need to, when she hacked into the school database and took the pictures and files from there. _"I just do it for people I feel I want to remember. You're one of those special people."_

He obviously still thought it was strange - most people probably would, Info-chan thought with a mental smile - but he nodded.

 _"Sure."_ Kai said.

Info-chan brought up her camera, aiming it at his face, and he smiled awkwardly at her as she took the picture.

When she told him she'd taken it, he nodded and turned away, and out of reflex for wanting to appear normal, Info-chan spoke to him, _"Wait, don't you want to see it?"_

 _"No."_ Kai looked back at her, smiling more comfortably now. _"I'm not really one for pictures."_

With a last word of thanks, he entered the counselor's office.

Info-chan's smirk only grew at his words.

He didn't have the "Social Butterfly" Persona if what he'd just said was true.

Judging from the way he reacted to her touching him, he'd probably have the "Heroic" Persona, if it turned out he liked helping people.

But then again, judging by his poor Japanese, he'd probably have a "Loner" personality by default, depending on how people treated him.

Only time would tell, she thought.

While thinking this, Info-chan realized something else.

He didn't ask if she wanted to get a pass to go to class since she was tardy.

Someone with a "Heroic" Persona would probably think about that, especially if she were to get in trouble because of him.

Sure, she was exempt from any sort of school punishment, but for someone who'd just arrived today, that wouldn't be so obvious for everyone.

Maybe he was a "Loner" after all.

He seemed too stiff to be a Sleuth, and while she wouldn't cast out the idea of him having an "Evil" Persona, that would most likely only reveal itself through some information digging.

She turned around, walking away.

She'd find out eventually, she told herself.

* * *

When the end of the school day came, Ayano immediately left the classroom, going down the stairs and walking around the school, her going to the school's front entrance and exiting to her right, going around the perimeter to the left side of the school.

There she found a full dumpster, and seeing it there, Ayano looked up, seeing the place where Kokona and Saki had talked during lunch.

Nodding to herself, she turned around, speed-walking back to the school's inside, her quickly finding the person she was looking for.

Running up to the janitor, she called out to him, him being relatively young, perhaps in his mid-20s, and asked him a question as soon as she was close.

"Could I borrow some trash bags please?"

* * *

In the immediate aftermath of meeting the counselor, an attractive woman wearing glasses, holding her black hair up in a ponytail, along with make-up, Kai met his class.

His introduction was quite awkward, as he'd been stuck in the maze since the morning, and had to explain this to a teacher who didn't even seem half as amused by this as he felt at his own foolishness.

After being told to sit down and complying, Kai paid as much attention as was possible to the teacher, him never able to answer the questions he knew the answer to, to his own frustration.

When the day finally ended, Kai immediately went to his teacher with the question he wanted to ask typed up on his phone.

As people immediately left, he went to the teacher and held up his phone to her after getting her attention.

 _"Could you tell me what clubs I can join?"_ His phone read.

She seemed surprised he'd asked this question, yet responded with her own question.

"Can you understand me clearly?" She asked, and Kai nodded.

She mentally sighed in relief.

She had wanted to ask him before, but she deemed the question too embarassing to ask in front of the class.

Now that she knew, she wouldn't need to worry about him undergoing a social barrier.

"Yes, there are many clubs to choose from. Is there any club in particular you'd be interested in?"

His gaze turned down, to his phone, and he started typing up a response, but the woman's hand grasped his softly, her looking him in the eye as he looked up at her.

"Don't you think it'd be better to speak instead of type? If you rely on that phone too much, you'll never learn to speak well."

He blinked, but nodded his understanding, hesitant still to put his phone in his pocket.

He had a strong accent as he did his best to speak.

"I would... like to know... what clubs there are, as well as where they are." He said, the teacher seeing that he was nervous as he spoke.

She nodded her understanding, her pulling a piece of paper and a pen from her desk and writing it out for him, Kai watching the teacher's pen as she made the notes and descriptions on where to find the clubs, mentally crossing out certain clubs on the list.

He would only go to those that he thought would be worthwhile for him.

He wouldn't go to the clubs for Photography or Light Music, for example.

His interest was somewhat piqued by the Gardening club, but he decided that would be a last choice sort of thing, as it didn't appeal to him that greatly.

The fourth club the teacher started writing made her pause for a moment, before crossing everything she wrote for that club out, her continuing on.

Kai was made moderately curious by the Computer, Sports, and Martial Arts clubs.

The two clubs he felt most interested in joining however were the Cooking and Occult clubs.

When the teacher finished writing out a few more club names, she picked up the paper and handed it to him, "Here are all the clubs and where they're located."

He took the paper and looked it over, then looked back up at the teacher, "Sensei, did you make a mistake for this club?"

Kai pointed to the club she had crossed out.

She looked down at it, her sighing, crossing her arms and closing her eyes, shaking her head.

"It's a club that only has one member. The club president isn't accepting any club members who want to join at the moment."

"Really?"

"Yes." She opened her eyes. "Before I forget, you need to remember that you can only join one club at a time. Too many clubs will probably distract you from your studies."

He looked down at the piece of paper, before nodding, "Thank you, Sensei."

"No problem." The teacher watched as her new student walked out into the hallway, him stopping at the door and turning around to face her again.

"Have... a good day." Kai said as clearly as he possibly could.

She smiled at him.

"You too."

He smiled and nodded, then walked away.

When he was out of sight, the teacher's smile dropped, her looking over the now empty classroom whilst uncrossing her arms.

She walked to the row of desks closest to the windows in the room, going down that column of desks until she found the one she was looking for.

"When will you ever come back to class?" She said to the empty seat.

"Is there something wrong with my desk?" The girl's voice made the teacher's eyes narrow, her looking behind herself at the bespectacled red-head standing on the opposite side of the classroom.

"No. Nothing wrong at all." She walked down to the other end of the row, to the back of her class, and walked along the back end, holding Info-chan's gaze all the while.

When she reached the other door in the classroom, she had a more authoritative note to her voice.

"I know you're allowed to break the rules as you please, but would it kill you to come to class?"

"There's simply too much information that needs knowing." Info-chan replied, shrugging. "Besides, it's not like I'm wasting time."

"Taking pictures of girls' underwear and selling them to other people, without their consent, when you should be in class learning, isn't any different than wasting time. What's the point of coming here if you're just going to goof off?"

"Try saving this lecture for the Photography club. At least I'm doing something more productive with my time than they do."

"More like provocative." The teacher opened her door.

"Say what you like about it. It's still time better spent than in this room."

"And now I can't help but think your family has no honor. It's a shame really. Such a bright mind wasting away behind a computer screen, trying to uphold a youthful illusion that this is what she wants to do with her life. I pity your father."

She walked out of the classroom, shutting the door with a light slam.

Info-chan remained silent for a moment, looking at the door her teacher left in, then scoffed at her words.

"You say that as if I have a father."

The first club Kai decided to look for was the Cooking club.

Following the directions his teacher had given him, he found his way towards the back of the school, reading each room sign that he passed.

When he finally reached the one that said "Cooking Club", he grasped the door handle and pulled it open.

Upon first seeing the interior of the club, any belief that Kai might've wanted to join the Cooking Club died within him.

There was only one color to the room, and that was pink.

One could tell just by looking inside few people would truthfully want to spend most of their free time within the confines of this room.

The monochromatic nature of the room's color screamed the word "misogynist" within the boy's mind.

Why would any group of girls - it had to be girls, the boy knew this upon sight - decide to paint the room pink?

Surely there were other colors that could be seen as less feminine that would fit perfectly with this place.

"Can we help you?" A girl asked him from a table on the other side of the room, a side he noticed was of a much more normal color.

He looked at her, her having red hair tied into a ponytail that stuck out of the right side of her head, her crimson eyes gazing expectantly at him.

His voice came out hesitantly.

"Is... is this the Cooking Club room?" He asked as he gazed at his surroundings once more.

"Yes. Why do you ask?" The girl who'd helped him earlier asked, her having green hair and eyes.

He looked down at the list of clubs, speaking with the same tone.

"I wanted to join a club... I was interested in this one."

"You can't join this club right now then." Another girl said from in front of him, and Kai looked to find a girl with purple hair that came out in twin drills standing there with a platter of bite sized food in her hands.

At the sight of her, his eyes widened, his heart stopping for a brief moment.

"Oh, really?" He said dumbly.

"Yes. The club president isn't here yet, so until then, you'll have to wait." She explained, and Kai took a step back.

"Oh... I see then." He forced a smile onto his face, "Well, I guess I'll be going then. Nice meeting you all!"

He closed the door much too quickly, his eyes only relaxing after he ran away from the Cooking club and reached the staircase, him having run so much that he bent over and breathed heavily when he stopped moving.

When Kai calmed down, he sighed heavily.

"It can't be her." He said to himself, standing up straight now.

This had to be some weird coincidence, he thought to himself.

He had never been sure if others shared the capability he had, but he had a tendency of seeing into the future as he slept.

The realization that this was true had taken years to culminate itself, especially as he often forgot the dreams he had, but it was the truth.

There was never any controlling it, and since the circumstances were often vague to his dream self, he could never capitalize on the ability, almost as if fate, in its predetermining glory, decided to periodically mock him for his helplessness against inevibility.

The last dream Kai had was quite eerie however.

There had been a girl there, and from what he could see, she had been crying as she stood on top of a chair in the middle of the night.

Several times, her phone would ring, and while she paid attention to it, she would ultimately always ignore it until it stopped vibrating.

For some reason, she had duct tape over her mouth, while working with rope as she tied it to her ceiling, her efforts unceasing as she made a noose out of the rope.

His dream that night had ended with her putting the noose around her neck and preparing to step off of the chair.

Unlike most of his other dreams, that ending was several times more ominous than he would enjoy.

Ever since he woke from the dream, he kept putting it off in his mind that he was simply having a nightmare that was suspiciously detailed in how he felt watching the girl go through the process of commiting suicide.

Throughout the dream he felt a wave of dizziness and a bit of confusion, something that he seldom felt in dreams that weren't vision of the future.

For the first several hours of this day, Kai believed himself when he said that it had all been a bad dream, but now that he'd seen the girl with that weird hairstyle, his faith in that belief died with each passing second.

The only thing he wasn't sure about was if the girl who'd been inside of the Cooking club and the girl who'd been inside of his dream vision were the same person.

Their hair colors looked slightly different, he thought.

But then, he realized, that was probably due to the room she was in being dark.

He sighed, bringing a hand against his forehead, his palm pressing into his closed eye.

What was he to do about this?

There was no way of telling how long it'd be before what his dream vision foretold would be true or otherwise.

It could be a week or a year for all he knew before it'd come true.

He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then looked down, before he brought his hands together in prayer, him kneeling down without a care for anyone who could've been passing by in that moment.

 _"Lord, I ask you to keep that girl safe. In Jesus name I pray, Amen."_ He mouthed the prayer.

He stood back up on his feet, the brief prayer completed, his worries diminished by it.

He'd probably have to keep an eye on her, he thought.

With this thought, he started walking away again, going to the other club he felt strong interest in, having a firm belief that the Occult club would certainly be less visually abrasive to him than the Cooking club room.

Upon reaching the Occult club room, the sight that greeted Kai made him freeze.

Stars, made into the pentagrams that resembled the star of Satan, were etched onto what Kai could only assume were rugs or large cloths of some type, hung up on three of the four walls in the room that he could see.

The center of the room was marked by the largest pentagram rug of all, there being a number of lit candles positioned in a circle position that served as the room's only light.

The people who Kai assumed were the members all had dark colored hair, half of them having an eyepatch on their face, every one sitting in a grand looking chair as they read books.

With him arriving in the Occult clubroom, a new source of light from the hallway caused the members to look up at him.

A moment of silence passed everyone by as they stared at Kai, Kai, in turn, staring back at them.

Then he awkwardly looked at his paper, asking the first question that came to his mind, "Uh... Is this... the Occult club?"

"Yes." One of the males in the club said. "Were you interested in joining our club?"

"Yes, I was." As he said this, Kai managed to avoid putting an unnecessary amount of emphasis behind the word "was".

Remembering the reason the girls in the Cooking club said he couldn't join then was because the club president wasn't there, he decided to ask about this club's president.

"Is this club's president here?"

There was a unanimous wave of surprise that rolled through the club members' faces at these words.

"You actually want to join?" Another male asked, his uncovered eye widened.

Kai scratched his right cheek with his index finger, "I did, but if the club president's not here, then I can't join right?"

"Well, no..." The first student to talk to him, a boy with shaggy black hair for locks, said this with an expression that reflected an emotion that Kai couldn't quite place.

Having realized he couldn't join then, Kai mentally sighed in relief.

He wouldn't be mistaken for being a Satanist pretending to be a Christian if he chose a club other than this one.

Despite his newfound spiritual repulsion to this club, Kai decided to be polite regardless of this.

"I'll have to take my leave then. Sorry to bother everyone."

He started closing the door, only for the sound of footsteps to come from behind it, a foot sticking out and keeping the door from closing all the way.

Kai stared down at the foot in surprise.

He had heard of people getting a foot in the door when they were trying to sell something to other people, but this had to be the first time he'd ever heard of a person getting a foot _out_ the door for something.

Knowing that if someone was willing to do this to keep him from closing a door that was completely shut prior to his arrival, Kai slowly opened the door, a boy with a neat haircut and glasses with a blurred eyeglass on being on the other side, him breathing heavily but smiling triumphantly.

Behind him was the remainder of the club, who seemed to have rushed over with a similar intention in mind, the books they'd been reading forgotten.

He blinked at the sight of this, staring at the collective group before him.

"It might be possible to join if we call the president on the phone though." A girl with hair tied into pig tails by skull accessories suggested, and now Kai realized that the surprise the members felt had turned into excitement.

"Would you be willing to wait for us to get her on the phone?" The last club member said, her smile suggesting she expected him to say yes.

Realizing just how surprised his expression had become, Kai managed to make a sheepish smile, "I... I guess."

The group's faces lit up so much that the candles in the room would pale in comparison.

"Do you have her number?" The girl with skull hair accessories asked the shaggy haired boy.

"Yes, I do. Give me a second to call her." He pulled his phone out of his pocket, turning it on and trying to look for his club president's number.

"Wait." Kai's voice made the club members turn to look at him. "If they're busy, I don't want to be a bother to them."

"Don't worry." Was the boy with shaggy hair's immediate reply, tapping on one of the contacts on the phone and bringing it to his ear. "She'll be happy to hear you'd like to join."

For a moment, he almost wanted to point out that he didn't know if he wanted to join the club yet (or rather, he didn't want to join the club upon entering the clubroom), but the shift of emotion that brought the air of the room to be filled with excitement kept him from speaking up for himself.

The boy with shaggy hair, Shin Higaku, spoke calmly as he heard his club president pick up the phone.

"Hello?" Oka's voice came hesitantly after a second of silence.

"Hi President Ruto. I'm calling because there's someone who was interested in joining the Occult club."

On the other end of the line, Oka's eyes widened themselves, "R-Really?"

"Yes. He has to talk to you first though." Shin explained.

"Really? Couldn't you do it for me?" She said this, and Shin immediately understood why.

"I wish I could, but since you're the president, I can't make this decision. I'm only your stand-in after all."

There was a pause on Oka's end of the phone.

"Would it be okay if you talked to him?"

"Yes." She answered after a moment.

"Okay." Shin turned to the newcomer, who looked at him curiously. "Here he is now."

"Okay."

Shin handed the younger male his phone, and he took it, bringing it to his ear.

"Hello?" Kai spoke hesitantly.

"Hello." Oka's voice rivaled his in hesitance. "I'm the club president. You were interested in joining?"

"Yes. Could you tell me about it first though?"

"Yes. Um... the Occult club is devoted to the research of supernatural and paranormal phenomena... witches, ghosts, vampires, demons, aliens, psychics, and time-travelers are all welcome here."

Kai blinked at the last few words.

"Miss Ruto?" He asked the name he heard Shin use to call her by.

"Yes?"

"... are you the Occult club president and the leader of the SOS Brigade by any chance?"

There was silence for a moment, but then he could hear the girl on the other end of the line chuckle quietly.

"I see you caught the joke I made."

Kai smiled, "You like Haruhi Suzimiya too?"

This comment gave him a strange look from the Occult club members, but their president answered over the phone.

"Yes... I enjoy anything that's supernatural..."

"I can tell from that description." Kai leaned against the door, looking up at the ceiling, chuckling lightly. "Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Anyone who joins our club will develop a resistance to horrific and terrifying things."

"Oh, well that sounds nice." Kai said.

If not a bit cult-ish, he mentally added dryly.

"... or succumb to them..." After she said this, Kai could hear the sound of the girl chuckling darkly.

Throughout the phone call, Shin had watched Kai closely, and his worries were replaced by a glimmer of hope as the boy made a jab at Oka's description of the club.

When the boy asked if there was anything else he would need to know, these hopes dissipated instantly.

He felt ensured when he said that whatever Oka told him sounded nice, but when he saw Kai's expression drop somewhat, he realized what had happened.

The same could be said of the other Occult club members as they watched their potential new member's changing expression.

Leave it to their leader to screw their chances of getting someone new in the group up, they thought simultaneously.

In Kai's mind however, he still considered it.

"I-I see." He replied as calmly as possible, "Well, that is true. Humans are more liable to cause themselves harm as compared to most other things..."

"Yes." Oka replied. "But the question remains of whether you'd like to join, knowing those risks."

Kai looked up at the ceiling in thought.

"I think I'll have to think it over about whether I join or not." Kai said.

There came the sound of disappointed sighs from the club members to his right, but Kai refrained from looking over at them.

"I see..." There was an edge in the club president's voice too, Kai noted.

"I must admit," Kai glanced over at the large pentagram on the wall, him seeing the table with a skull on it underneath it. "When I first came to this club, I wasn't expecting what I saw. But if you guys really are devoted to supernatural research, then I'd be interested in that."

Oka blinked as she heard the boy's words.

"R-Really?" Maybe she hadn't heard him right.

"Yes." Kai closed his eyes. "However, I can't garuntee I'll join."

"Oh."

"Thank you for telling me about it though."

"Y-You're welcome... Hopefully you'll find another club that you'll find useful..."

He blinked at her tone and words.

She said that almost as if she didn't expect him to come back.

"Hey, I never said I wouldn't find this club useful." Kai said, him slightly more offended than he imagined he'd be at something like this. "I just have to see what the other clubs have to offer."

"Why?"

"This is the second club I've come to see. I went to the Cooking club first because I thought that'd be useful to me. But due to... circumstances, I decided not to join."

His opposition to being found in a kitchen painted pink while cooking drove him away the most.

"Ah."

"I honestly hope that I get to join this club, but it wouldn't be fair if I just joined the first club I saw, you know?"

"But my club isn't the first you've seen."

"That's besides the point." Kai looked out into the hallway. "Even if I don't join, I'd like to come here again. I'm a bit curious about supernatural things myself."

If he could find something about his dream vision ability, where else would it be, Kai thought, if not here, where such a concept was within the club's jurisdiction to research?

Maybe if they had something on it, they could help him learn something about the vision he'd had of the girl hanging herself.

Maybe he could find a way to help her, maybe even prevent it from happening.

He knew there were several "maybes" involved in this thinking, but who knew?

He was a firm believer in his religion, and it said that God worked through humans.

Maybe the members of the Occult club could bring his rather recent prayer to fruition.

"I see. I hope you decide to join then."

Her voice lacked the semblance of enthusiasm it had before, Kai noticed.

He decided it'd be better not to say anything about it.

"Alright. Thank you for talking to me." Kai said.

"Thank you for considering our club." Shin said, Oka being an echo of his voice.

Kai handed him his phone back, "It's been a pleasure. I think we'll be seeing more of each other in the future."

"Hopefully." Shin replied, taking the phone back, Kai walking out of the clubroom, him now going towards the Sports club.

"You know he's probably never going to come back right?" Supana Churu said behind Shin.

"We don't know that yet." Oka's voice said on the phone, her voice going unheard by anyone except Shin, her sounding more like she was convincing herself more than her club member.

* * *

Kokona walked alone in the plaza of the school as she headed for the school entrance and exit.

As she went, the sound of music playing could be heard somewhere, as well as yells from different parts of the school.

Her walk was a leisurely one, her taking a moment to enjoy the settling stillness of her environment, one that she wasn't used to anymore.

This was one of the rare moments where Kokona could be to truly to herself, alone with her thoughts.

The only downside to such a thing was that Kokona had few good things to think about.

Due to her having plans of her own, she wouldn't be going to the Drama club today.

A part of her tried not to think about it, but it was inevitable.

If she could recall anything notable happening in the club recently, it was probably the club president choosing to elect a new person for their position.

There had been a vote, but since it was private, no one knew who would be chosen to become the new president.

Kokona herself didn't much care for the club, it being a passtime if nothing else, despite people saying she was a great actress.

Her mind wandered as she walked through the plaza, this continuing on even as she went to her shoe locker.

Her mind was deeply entrenched in the possible themes of a new play that was being made when she opened her locker, only pausing at the sight of a letter being on top of her shoes.

Questioning what it was doing there, Kokona picked it up, opening it, reading what it said.

" _Please come meet me on the roof at the corner closest to the Sakura tree at 4:35."_ Kokona mouthed to herself. _"I want to talk about my domestic abuse."_

She stared at the note in surprise, then looked around herself, seeing if anyone else was around.

Seeing no one, Kokona did a speed walk to the roof, pulling out her phone to check the time.

As she saw that the time then was 4:35, Kokona's eyes widened, and she started running, going up the closest staircase and moving quickly.

Upon reaching the second floor however, Kokona was face to face with one of the members of the Drama club.

"Oh, Haruka, just the person I was looking for." He said, smiling at her.

"Sorry, I need to be somewhere." Kokona jogged in place as she said this, and the boy with black hair gave a look to her.

"Will you be coming to the Club today?"

Kokona shook her head, "Sorry, I have plans today."

"Alright. I'll tell you later then if that's okay."

"Okay." Kokona replied and started running up the steps once more.

When she eventually reached the top of the building, Kokona looked around herself, then started running to the back of the school as quickly as possible, her soon seeing the corner that she'd talked with Saki in earlier that day.

She breathed heavily, then wondered who had sent her the note to begin with.

Could it have been Saki?

She had left a bit earlier than usual.

But why would she give Kokona a time as strange as five minutes after the group left the Cooking club?

She decided that it couldn't be her if that were the case.

But then, who else could it be?

It could've been everyone, she realized.

There was nothing so special about her that would make her a victim of every bad thing in the world.

There were others in the world, maybe some just like her, with problems with their dad.

As she walked to the meeting place, Kokona looked at the metal rectangular crating from before, and walking past it, she looked for the person who gave the note to her.

She found no one.

"?" She looked around herself, as though expecting to find someone hiding in the corner, before she checked her phone again.

It was 4:38 at that moment.

She turned around, looking behind herself.

Had the person already left?

She turned back to the railing, her reaching it and looking over everyone who worked in the Gardening club a large distance away from where she was.

She could faintly make out the image of Yamada there, doing his club activities early.

"I wonder how he's holding up now." Kokona muttered to herself.

She looked ahead of herself, seeing the clouds flying quickly through the sky, it being a beautiful orange as the sun set.

Even the person who'd given her this note wasn't here, maybe she'd stay here for a while longer.

It was such a nice view up here after all.

She closed her eyes, smiling contently as she basked in the moment of silence, happy to be at such peace.

The first thing that ruined this silence was the sound of a faint footstep.

The thing that ruined her moment of peace and quiet was the feeling of two hands slamming harshly into her back, pushing her into the railing.

"What the - !"

The assailant crouched down, grasping the back of her shoes and flinging them up, Kokona's entire body rotating forward, her waist now on the side of the railing that was unsafe for any person.

Without fully realizing what had just happened to her, Kokona's feet slipped out of her shoes, her beginning to fall.

* * *

 **A/N: And done.**

 **I get the feeling the Occult club members were a bit OOC, but my reason for showing them to act the way they did is due to how I want to portray them.**

 **Hopefully anyone reading this can tolerate any level of OOCness in here.**


	4. Unveiled

The only thing she knew was that the person who'd pushed her was a girl, judging by the bare legs revealed under her uniform skirt, Kokona only having a split second to see this.

There was nothing she could do as she started to fall.

Kokona's first reflex was to reach out to grab onto the roof railing as her body flipped upside down, but her hand hit the corner of the school roof, her a second too late to save herself.

As she began her descent, her arms and legs flailing uselessly as she tried to grab onto something, she faced the orange sky as it fell further and further away from her.

The wind whistled loudly past her ears as she fell at a heightening velocity, her seeing that the rooftop was well beyond her reach now.

Knowing there was no saving herself, she, in an effort to brace herself for impact, closed her eyes tightly.

She did this a split second before her body slammed into a trash can.

Something was wrong however.

Kokona definitely felt an impact, but instead of feeling something hard pressing against her back slam into her, she felt a strange cushion.

She had realized she had been screaming the entire way down, yet this quickly stopped when she made her landing, making a small bounce with her body even, Kokona's voice emitting a squeak like sound.

For a moment, her eyes were tightly closed, her brain trying to process what had just happened.

Then came a voice from above her, saying something she couldn't understand.

She slowly opened her eyes, her heart racing harshly, her breathing coming out haphazardly, looking upon the person above her.

Looking down at her, with widened eyes, was a boy slightly younger than her.

Kai looked down at Kokona, her evidently scared as she lay in the bed of full garbage bags, him asking her the same question again with a shout, his mind too worked up from seeing her fall to switch to Japanese, speaking in his native tongue.

 _"Are you alright?!"_ He yelled down at her.

"W-What?" The girl responded shakily.

He realized then what he'd said, and after breathing for a short moment with closed eyes, he looked back at her, speaking in Japanese now, his expression calmer, "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes." She laid there a moment longer, staring at him in a way that made Kai wonder if she were looking at him or behind him.

"Do you need help?" Kai asked, offering the girl a hand.

She looked at his hand, her reaching up and taking it, Kai feeling it shaking horribly.

"T-Thank you..." She said whilst pulling on his hand, Kai pulling her up and studying her face.

"It's nothing." Kai said, noticing the fear in her eyes.

He looked up, towards the roof, "You didn't jump off the roof, did you?"

"No way!" She exclaimed, looking up there in a horrified way. "Someone just pushed me off!"

"What?" His eyes snapped back down to her. "Why?!"

"I don't know!" She screamed hysterically.

He flinched lightly at her outburst, then looked up at the roof again.

"It's a good thing I started putting those trash bags in the dumpster. We might not have had this conversation if that happened."

He rubbed his head as he said this.

Kai had just talked to the president of the Sports club minutes before, and as he headed over towards the Gardening club, he noticed that there was a large dumpster with several full trash bags, not in, but around it.

After seeing that the dumpster was, in fact, completely empty, Kai only deduced that someone had somehow forgotten to throw the trash bags away after putting them there, him not thinking for a second that someone deliberately placed the trash bags out on purpose.

Once he made this assumption, the boy simply went along with his instincts and starting putting all the trash bags into the dumpster.

He was almost finished when the girl who'd just fallen crashed into said dumpster.

"H-Hey..."

At the girl's trembling voice, Kai looked down at her, seeing that her eyes were watery with tears that threatened to spill out.

"Yes?" He said in a slightly taken aback voice.

"... can you give me a hug?" Kokona asked the boy before her.

His eyes flickered in understanding, and he nodded, leaning in close to her, Kokona hugging him tightly, her tears falling out and staining his shirt, them fueled by a mixture of a residue of her past fear and current relief.

She was alive, she thought to herself.

* * *

Ayano walked down the steps, a hand over her heart as she felt it beating strangely.

Despite this, she immediately started texting Info-chan as she tried to go down the steps, hoping to force herself to breathe normally.

 _You can mark Kokona Haruka as being gone now._

A moment passed before Info-chan's reply came.

 **Really? Why do you say that?**

 _I pushed her off the roof._

 **... ... ...**

Ayano wasn't sure what to make of the three elipses, and naturally inquired the information broker about it.

 _What?_

 **You took a picture of her panties and sent it to me before you offed her? JUST before that?**

The memory of her doing this less than two minutes ago was fresh enough to be extremely vivid in the girl's mind, and she mentally nodded.

 _Yes._

 **Don't do that again.**

 _Why?_

 **I have to capitalize on these panty shots!  
A panty shot from someone whose dead is bad for business!**

 _You're mad about that?_

 **Of course!  
This is my main source of income we're talking about here!**

 _Sorry that it wasn't up to your standards._

 **Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that you baited her in and screwed her over the way you did.**

 _Oh?_

 **Yes. It's just that I'd rather keep this "killing business" away from my "panties business".**

Ayano narrowed her eyes at the screen.

 _They're both still terrible things._

 **Of course. But, unlike you, I do this for a living.**

 _Good for you._

Ayano mentally poured sarcasm into her text.

There came a few minutes before Info-chan's reply came, Ayano resting her head against the wall to calm herself at this point.

 **Also, Yan-chan?**

 _Yes?_

 **You said you pushed her off the roof, right?**

 _Yes._

 **She should've died from the fall, right?**

 _Falling three stories should make that happen for anyone unless they're something out of a shounen manga._

 **Then who is that walking with the transfer student?**

Accompanied with the text was a picture that seemed to be of a monitor, Ayano seeing that Kokona was walking awkwardly next to the boy who'd just transferred to her class that afternoon in the entrance way.

What caught Ayano's attention was the fact that, instead of Kokona being sock-footed, she wore shoes that looked to be a size too big for her, with the boy walking with her being sock-footed now.

At the sight of this, Ayano started texting Info-chan again, knowing this had to be a mistake.

 _How long ago did you take this picture?_

 **About half a minute ago.  
That doesn't answer my question though.**

 _That can't be right.  
I vividly remember pushing her off the roof. She screamed and everything._

Ayano felt confusion mix with surprise at that moment.

How was she still alive?

There was her ear-splitting scream, and then her sudden silence, which obviously had to be the tell-tale sign of her being dead.

So how was she still alive?

As though on cue to throw a jab at her, Info-chan's response came.

 **Apparently she's something out of a shounen manga then.  
Looks like it'll take more than a three story fall to kill her. Especially since she's walking pretty normally. She hardly even looks like she's hurt at all. Just shaken up.**

Ayano narrowed her eyes at the screen, the frustration she felt making her body shake violently.

It made no sense, she thought.

Kokona couldn't have just fallen three stories and shrugged it off.

That just didn't happen! Ayano mentally screamed.

Again, Info-chan seemed to text her in cue to her thoughts.

 **But hey, you're a good girl right? If she's a shounen character within a girl, you're probably a real life version of Yuno Gasai.**

Ayano's eyes reflected tiredness then.

 _I don't know who that is._

There came a moment of silence, before her phone vibrated, her looking and seeing a picture of an anime girl there.

This one had bright pink hair and red eyes, wearing a warm and vibrant smile that would tell a person that there was nothing to be sad about or be afraid of in the entire world, the cherry blossoms blooming behind her to add ambiance to the image.

It'd be a wonderful picture, Ayano thought most would say, if the girl didn't have an axe being held behind her back, it being in plain sight despite its position.

Then came another text.

 **Do I even need to explain the connection I'm making between you and her?**

 _Please do. I was never good at metaphors._

 **Both are seemingly nice girls who just so happen to end up killing people because they get in the way of their love life. Completely unrepentent monsters willing to off the relatives of whoever happens to be their object of affection if it turned out they weren't okay with their relationship.**

 _I wouldn't kill his relatives. Senpai would hate me for that._

 **So you say.  
You killed his best friend, and that's not very far removed from a family member.**

 _She would've stolen Senpai away from me if I hadn't done anything._

 **True.  
But that doesn't disprove what I'm saying about you now.**

 _You aren't worried about me, are you?_

 **You think I'm reminding you of the fact that you're a heartless shell of a monster because I actually care?  
No. I'm just making a comparison.**

 _How quaint._

By this point, sarcasm had become a staple of her conversations with this girl.

 **Plus, I like watching your reaction to me pointing out the awful things you've done.**

At this, Ayano looked behind herself, up the stairs she could see, then ahead of her, an empty hall greeting her.

Looking down at her phone again, Ayano made up her response.

 _Is it a hidden camera you're using?_

 **Maybe.**

 _What exactly do I do, if I might ask?_

 **It's subtle, but there's always this twitch in your eye. It's fun to watch out for.**

 _I've noticed it recently too.  
I guess killing Osana and that club president last week had a stronger effect on me than I thought._

 **You killed someone else too?**

 _Yes. She might not have been interested in Senpai, but I didn't want to take any chances._

 **You really ARE a real life Yuno Gasai.  
I'm impressed.**

Ayano put her phone away at that, sighing softly with closed eyes, before they opened again at the sound of voices.

Almost reflexively, Ayano started speed walking down the hallway, not looking back.

She didn't want to risk having to talk to people again, let them see her in this state.

She had to plan out how to kill Kokona.

* * *

"That's really what happened?" Kai asked the older girl next to him, eyes curious, but not skeptic, as they walked up the steps.

She nodded softly.

"Why would anyone push you off the roof when you were just going to meet someone to talk?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I got there a couple minutes late, but not that late."

"Would you mind me asking just what they wanted to talk about? They might've been upset that you stood them up." He said in a somewhat joking manner.

Kokona threw him a side glare, then gave a small "hmph" as she looked away from him, turning her nose up, "Just for that remark, I won't tell you."

Not like she'd tell this guy about the letter even if he hadn't said that, Kokona added mentally.

He gave her a look for a moment, his smile dropping, and sighed while nodding his understanding.

"Yeah, I guess I deserve that." He admitted.

"What?" Kokona looked over at him.

"I can't expect you to take me seriously if I'm joking about something as serious as this." Kai said, his tone notably more serious now as he looked up the stairs. "So I'm sorry about that."

Kokona tilted her head at him, then looked ahead of herself.

"It's fine. Just don't do it again. I did nothing wrong to make someone push me off the roof."

"Understood." Kai's eyes half-lidded themselves as the two reached the roof, the boy holding the door for her as she walked past him, her saying a word of thanks as he did this.

When they started walking to the place where Kokona supposedly lost her shoes, Kokona stopped in front of the metal rectangular prism, turning to look back at Kai, who stopped behind her, looking between her and the shoes that were put neatly against one another on the railing of the roof behind her.

"Is there something wrong?" Kai asked while he looked back over to Kokona.

"Well..." Kokona looked away nervously, not meeting his eyes. "I wanted to ask if you could get my shoes for me..."

Kai blinked, looking at her in a confused manner.

"Why?"

She didn't answer for a moment, her eyes only glancing over to her shoes again before darting away, her right hand reaching up and grasping her left elbow, "I'm a little scared the person who pushed me is still there."

She admitted this in a barely audible whisper.

Kai watched her for a moment longer, then lifted his left hand to her, expression blank.

"I'll do it if you hold my hand."

Kokona looked down at his hand, her hand grasping her elbow more tightly, "Why?"

"Because I don't want you to be afraid of this rooftop. This is the best way of dealing with this I can think of."

Kokona stared at his hand for a moment longer, then, with obvious hesitance and reluctance, she raised her right hand, wrapping it tightly around his.

She looked up at him, and Kai tried to smile comfortingly at her.

She forced a small smile back, and Kai looked over at Kokona's shoes, "Are you ready?"

"I'm ready to leave this rooftop." Kokona answered bluntly.

"Then let's not waste any more time." Kai walked forward, Kokona following him as they moved slowly, past the metal casing.

For a moment, as they neared the shoes, Kokona felt a wave of fear rise within her, her looking behind her to see if there was anyone there.

Seeing that no one was behind them, she turned forward, them making slow progress as they reached the pair of shoes.

When they were close enough for Kai to grab them, the boy squeezed her hand lightly, looking behind himself and speaking softly to her, "I'm going to let go now, okay?"

Kokona felt ridiculous as she nodded, looking behind herself again to make sure nothing was there to push her now.

When she felt Kai's hand leaving hers, she looked at him, him moving normally, picking up her shoes with a finger for each before turning to Kokona, smiling, "Here you go."

Kokona took them gratefully, smiling lightly back at him, before bending down, setting her shoes down on the ground and stepping out of the shoes he'd lent to her, slipping her feet into her regular shoes again and standing up straight.

After looking back up at Kai, she smiled happily, "Thank you. I really can't thank you enough for this."

Kai returned her smile, "It's no problem. Is there something I could ask you now though?"

"Yes, what?"

"Could I have your phone number?"

Kokona blinked at these words.

As though realizing her thoughts, Kai shook his head, "No, I'm not asking for something like that."

The pursuit of something having a semblance of romantic relationship with this girl was the furthest thing from his mind, Kai thought.

And even if that had been what his intentions were, he wouldn't have asked her now, when she'd just gone through something so traumatic (even HE wasn't that socially awkward).

"What else would you be asking for my number for then?" Kokona asked curiously.

"Because frankly, I'm worried about you." Kai crossed his arms, looking away from Kokona, his gaze going back to the place Kokona's shoes had been.

The way the shoes had been positioned, it was almost as if she had been trying to commit suicide, if his knowledge about Japanese culture was reliable enough.

People would often commit suicide as a means of restoring their or their family's honor, and one custom involved the person who wanted to undergo suicide to take off their shoes.

What would've happened, Kai wondered, if he hadn't started throwing out the trash bags?

Would the girl in front of him even survive a fall like that?

But then again, she'd said she'd been pushed over the edge of the roof.

The only problem he had in believing her was the fact that she seemed too nice a person to merit someone to try to kill her like that.

His eyes found hers again, Kai deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"I know it may sound creepy, but I don't want you getting hurt. I may not always be able to come when you need me. But still, I want you to be able to contact me if things start going south for you."

She smiled sheepishly at his concerned expression.

"That's sweet of you. But I don't want you to do that to yourself. I wouldn't want to be a burden."

"You don't need to worry about that. I have my own views about how to treat others after all."

"And what would those be?" Kokona crossed her arms at him, her smile dropping as her expression became curious once more.

He reached into his shirt, pulling out a metal cross necklace, "I'm Christian, and as such, I follow Christ's teachings."

"Which would mean what exactly?"

"Well," Kai put his necklace back in his shirt, "For starters, during one of the times when Christ preached to a large group of people, if my memory serves me right, he said something along the lines of "I'm surrounded by my friends. Greater love has no man than this, that he may lay down his life for his friends." And then before he was crucified, one of the last things he told the apostles to do was to love each other the same way he loved them. Since I want to follow his commandments, I want to do what I can to help my friend."

"You're calling me your friend when you don't even know my name?" Kokona couldn't help smiling at how strange this boy's logic was.

"Yeah." Kai smiled sheepishly. "Even if it seems weird, I want you to be my friend."

"Alright. I'll humor you then." Kokona pulled out her phone, typing up her number and showing it to him. "Here it is."

Kai nodded, pulling out his own phone and putting Kokona's number into it, looking back at her and telling her he'd saved it on his phone.

Kokona put her phone into her pocket, smiling up at the slightly taller male, "Thanks again for all your help. I'm not sure I would've gone all the way back up here without you here with me."

"No problem. I'm happy we were able to meet, even if the circumstances were a little... abnormal."

She nodded, her turning around.

"I can agree to that. Right now I have somewhere I'll need to be going, so it was nice meeting you."

"Alright."

After Kokona started walking away, Kai said something behind her.

"Be safe!"

"I will!" She yelled behind her, just before she walked out of his sight.

"Okay." Kai said quietly.

He lifted his hand up, pressing his hand over the place where the cross on his necklace hung, pressing it into his chest, closing his eyes and breathing deeply and slowly.

 _"It'll be alright. She'll be safe if you try hard enough."_ He whispered to himself in his native tongue, opening his eyes again.

He could only pray that his God's will was to let him prevent her suicide, be it directly or indirectly.

With this thought, his feet slipped back into his shoes.

* * *

Shisuta Town always looked more lively at night compared to Buraza town, Kokona thought to herself as she walked through the streets.

The dreaded night had finally come for the girl as she walked to her destination.

But she kept trying to tell herself it would turn out fine.

She could do this, she told herself over and over.

Just one more night, and she'd be fine for a good while.

She'd just have to do rather deplorable things for a man she had loathed since the night before.

These were the very roundabout thoughts of the Senior in high school.

Kokona mentally sighed after the twelth time her attempt at positive thinking ended in a dismal way.

Try to think of the money, she told herself.

The money would support her and her father for a long time.

There'd be few, if any, repurcussions if she went through with this.

She'd be okay, she told herself.

"Just think of the money." She whispered, this time it being out loud, "Just think of the money."

Her walking slowed the more she told herself this.

"Just think of the money Kokona." She whispered to herself again, and her walking stopped completely now, her eyes looking down at her feet.

She was uncaring of the passerby, a few giving her looks as they moved around her.

She was more fixated on her feet, which refused to move as she willed them to.

"Think of the money Kokona..."

She'd have enough to support herself if she did this.

Enough where she'd be secured for a few months at the very least.

She could do this.

To not do this would be foolish, she reasoned.

She had been willing to do it once before, what was one more time?

"Think of the money..." Kokona whispered to herself.

Despite this mantra, she felt the truth of her feelings on the matter well up within her.

The money didn't matter to her, she thought.

It could've been 50,000 yen or all the yen she'd need to afford spending decades at the most expensive overseas university she could go to on the planet without a scholarship of some type.

She honestly didn't want to do this, and she knew to the very core of her being that this was the truth.

But regardless of her feelings, she needed to do this.

No matter what she tried, she couldn't find any other way to support herself, if even partially.

No other job would take her, no matter how many times she tried to find one.

Soon, it reached the point where it was either her doing something dishonorable or living homeless.

As she realized that, at this point in time, she would rather be homeless than do this, she felt the finality sink in for how greatly she hated to do this.

There came the impulse for her to turn around and head straight home, but a sense of obligation conflicted with this, causing her legs to remain frozen.

She hated this to her being, and yet needed to do this so much that she couldn't just walk away.

"Why do I have to be so desperate for money...?" She whispered to herself.

A hand placing itself on her right shoulder, right over the sling of her purse, made Kokona jump, her looking at the owner of the hand hurriedly.

Upon seeing who it was, the voice within her head telling her to call this off rang in her head.

"Hello there." The man said, him seeming happy to see her.

"Hi." She replied tonelessly.

"Are you ready?" He asked her.

No, she wasn't, she thought to herself.

"Yes." She lied, forcing a smile to come to her face.

The man's arm wrapped itself protectively around her, him walking forward, his presence giving Kokona's legs the ability to move again, them walking with him.

When they stopped in front of one building, Kokona looked up at the man, him looking curiously down at her.

"If we're going to go inside, could you give me the 50,000 yen now?" Kokona asked, her not able to look at the building they were next to, it being a love hotel.

"But you'd probably run off if I did that, wouldn't you?"

"No." The fact that she stopped looking him in the eye, coupled with her small voice, most likely didn't make her sound too convincing, Kokona thought.

"I'll give it to you when we're done. It's hard to trust you when you clearly wanted to go back home before."

His arm snaked around her again, and Kokona stepped away from him, her hands gripping the purse's sling tightly.

"I won't go in unless you show it to me." Kokona said, a note of defiance in her voice.

She wouldn't become putty to this man's hands, regardless of whether he had something she needed or otherwise.

His happy expression soured somewhat, but he pulled an small envelope out of the inside of his suit coat pocket, showing it to her whilst pulling a bill worth a thousand yen out for her to see.

Kokona saw that it was a full envelope, and nodded slowly at the sight of it.

"Okay." She said quietly, obediently walking to the man's side, him wrapping an arm around her again, his happy mood returning.

How sad was her situation, Kokona wondered, when she actually hoped for a split second that this man DIDN'T have the 50,000 yen?

* * *

Ayano walked in the more industrial area of Shisuta Town as she watched a boy with shaggy black hair, a trace of a smile and a blush on her face.

The reasons that her Senpai was inside of Shisuta town then didn't matter to her then.

She was just happy to see him again, surrounded by people who didn't know about him at all.

No one would try to take him away from her here.

At the sight of someone stopping in their tracks ahead of her, Ayano blinked somewhat as well, her seeing the looping drills of Kokona's hair and stopping herself.

For a moment, Ayano's hand reached towards her skirt, only for her to realize that she didn't have her knife with her.

With this realization came another one.

She mentally hit herself, remembering all of the potential witnesses around her.

She'd never have her Senpai if she were connected to Kokona's death.

She looked back at her Senpai, who turned to cross a street, and back at Kokona, who was staring down at her feet.

For a moment, Ayano wondered why Kokona was there to begin with, a man suddenly coming behind the purple haired girl and taking a firm grasp of her shoulder.

She looked surprised for a moment, then, in a sense of the word, relaxed when she saw who it was.

Staring at the two who were in distinctly different age groups, it took Ayano a moment to fathom a reason as to why the man held her against him as if Kokona was his woman, her remembering the text from Info-chan that she'd received that day.

Pulling her phone out just to be certain, Ayano looked into one of the few text message inboxes she had, scrolling through her past messages.

Sure enough, the one she was looking for wasn't hard to find.

 **If it's about her taking part in compensated dating then you're out of luck.**

Ayano looked up at Kokona again, an idea hatching up in her mind.

She followed the duo as she held her camera ready, taking pictures of them as she saw fit until they went into a building.

Ayano took a picture of the building as well after identifying it to be a love hotel, then turned, her proceeding to take up the next hour looking for her Senpai again as she logged into her social media account via her phone.

* * *

The next few hours passed Kokona by in a similar way to her classes that day; everything was a blur, and she hardly paid any attention at all.

The man used her and the love hotel room for their intended purpose, yet Kokona found no enjoyment or pleasure in it, her effort in pretending to notwithstanding.

When the man finally finished and was preparing to leave, gathering his scattered clothes and suit, Kokona lay face down, her naked body veiled under a crimson blanket.

Her arms were crossed under her chin as she laid it on her forearms, staring blankly at the headboard of the bed she was laying in.

"I'll leave the money on the table."

"Okay." Kokona replied to the man's words, without even bothering to look as he left the room.

She sighed, settling into her position and falling into a small sleep, waking up a few hours later.

After checking the time, the girl's eyes widened, and she hurried, rushing to redress herself and get home as quickly as was possible, her barely able to compose herself before leaving the love hotel.

Unbeknownst to her however, was the girl who had taken a picture of Kokona leaving the hotel, hours after the first man had left.

Smiling to herself, Ayano began to walk home.

* * *

When Kokona arrived home, she had only just started to open the envelope, checking to see if the money was still there.

To her surprise, there was a very large problem she had with the envelope itself.

The contents were not 50,000 yen, as she was promised, but 5,000 yen.

In addition to this, there was a small letter that came with it.

When she opened it up, Kokona read it to herself aloud.

 _"Sorry, but I will have to give you the rest of the money next time. Please appease with this for now. Come to the same place tomorrow at the same time."_ She mouthed to herself.

At first, she felt nothing.

Then, immediately after, Kokona barely managed to keep herself from screaming a curse to the heavens aimed towards that old, lying bastard.

Instead, with heavily shaking hands, she put the letter back in the envelope, and went inside of her home, her not even acknowledging her father as he slept amongst many cases of sake.

She simply walked into her room, finding comfort in its familiarity, and collapsed on the bed, her eyes narrowed into a deep scowl.

"I hate my life." She muttered to herself.

She pulled out her phone, realizing that she had a few new messages.

One was from Saki, and the other was from a number she didn't recognize.

Looking at the one from Saki first, Kokona read what it said.

Are you okay?

Kokona blinked at this, yet, imagining her friend being there with her, her mood was uplifted.

 _I've been better. Why?_

I thought you might feel bad after what people were saying about you. I just wanted to check.

 _What are you talking about?_

You didn't see that Fakebook post?

 _What post? What happened?_

It's a post saying that you're taking part in compensated dating.

Kokona's heart stopped when she read this.

I know, it's dumb, but a lot of people are agreeing with it.

She barely registered this text from Saki.

She only started going to the social media website and looked to see if her name was being mentioned anywhere.

And sure enough, there it was, in lettering that Kokona could read perfectly well, yet had immense difficulty believing was there.

 _Today, I saw Kokona Haruka in Shisuta Town. She was engaging in compensated dating._

The person who posted this was named Ayano Aishi.

Her finger trembled, but Kokona pressed the screen button to show the replies to this post.

The first to respond had been Yui.

 _I thought I saw her with an older man in Shisuta Town tonight, but I didn't think it was really her..._

The second to respond had been Yuna.

 _I wasn't sure if I should say anything about it, but I saw her doing that last week too..._

The third had been Koharu.

 _Seriously? I didn't think there would be anyone like that in our school..._

The fourth had been Mei.

 _Wow... That's pretty gross... I expected better from Kokona-chan..._

The fifth and final one was from Saki.

 _... no... Kokona-chan... it's not true... is it...?..._

Kokona's heart sank with each one of the replies.

Why did it have to be them, her friends, of all people, to respond to that post?

Maybe if it were someone else she could brush it off as a lie, but to her friends...

Her phone rumbling again caught her attention.

It's all just a dumb misunderstanding, right Kokona?

She couldn't find it within herself to respond.

She simply looked at the other message, it being the number she didn't recognize.

 **Hello. I'm the guy you met at the dumpster today. I was just checking in to see how you're holding up.**

Kokona's eyes widened lightly in realization.

 _I'm fine. I could be better._

She replied this quickly, this time it feeling several times more true when she said she could be better.

 **I can understand that. Not everyone falls off a rooftop and brushes it off after all.**

 _Most people can't brush it off to begin with._

 **All the more reason I'm glad you're not most people.**

She tried to smile at these words, but found herself unable to.

 _I guess I have you to thank for that._

Despite this, Kokona half-wished he hadn't filled the dumpster with garbage bags now.

He had no way of knowing this however.

 **I'd rather thank God for that. You never know when he's the one responsible for something after all.**

 _Is that so?_

 **Yes. It's best to not to take credit where it isn't due. I was able to meet you after all.**

 _Are you still positive you didn't have other motives for wanting my phone number other than to check on me?_

 **Yes. Positive.  
I won't deny you're a beautiful young woman, but common sense would tell anyone that you don't try to flirt with someone who just got pushed off a roof.**

Delving into the conversation, Kokona subconsciously forgot about her troubles, if only for a moment.

 _I'm pretty sure there have been guys who've tried to do something like that._

 **They're weird then. Either that or they're thinking with something other than their brains.**

Kokona smirked lightly at this.

 _I'd wager on the latter.  
Though it's not as weird as you came off to be._

 **Really? How?**

 _Well, there's you running out of the Cooking Club and acting melodramatic when I told you the club president wasn't there, for starters._

 **In my defense, I did not expect the Cooking Club to be pink.**

 _What's wrong with pink?_

 **Nothing. It's just too girly for me.  
It made me think I'd end up having a pink apron and a pair of glove mittens on.**

 _Why pink glove mittens?_

 **There are just moments where my imagination runs wild. It doesn't take very long for me to imagine things.**

 _You're definitely weird then._

 **Most people would identify me as that considering I've drawn manga before.**

 _You like that sort of thing?_

 **Yes. Do you?**

 _Not really. I think I know a couple of people who do though._

 **That's a bummer then.**

 _What type of manga do you make?_

For the first time it took a long time for him to respond.

 _Do you want to tell me?_

 **Well... I've generally done horror and romance.**

 _Could I read the romance ones if you could show them to me?_

 **I might. If I knew where they were.**

 _Why don't you know?_

 **When I got lost in the maze this morning, I had no way of knowing where I'd be going sometimes. Since all I had on me were my school supplies and the manga volumes, I had to make a tough choice.**

 _Which would be?_

 **EIther make a trail with my manga or the school supplies. I chose the manga.**

 _At least you got out._

 **Yes. But at what cost?  
I may never see those manga again. They were like my children. I never thought I'd cry over that.**

 _Why don't you go look for them, if they mean that much to you?_

 **I'm scared of getting lost in the maze again.**

 _Would you be willing to do it if I held your hand?_

 **No.**

 _Why? It worked for me._

 **Things that work for others generally never work for me.**

 _But not always._

 **Yes...**

 _Let's go in the morning._

 **I still don't want you to read some of them.**

 _Why?_

 **They're all rather mature for most people.**

 _How old are you right now?_

 **16 going around 17. Why?**

 _Since I'm 18, I'm older than you are. So if you can draw it, I should be able to handle it._

 **I don't want to test that. Some things cannot be unseen once seen.**

She laughed lightly at that, her about to type up a response when her phone rumbled again.

This time it was Saki.

Kokona-chan?

Realizing her forgetfulness, Kokona felt herself type her response without thinking.

 _Yes. I'll try to explain it to you guys later._

She felt herself heaving a sigh.

She didn't know what she'd say, but that should at least give her some time to think up a story.

Returning to her other conversation, Kokona decided to focus her attention on her current problem.

 _It's been nice chatting, but I have to go now._

 **Good night then, senpai.**

 _Good night kohai._

With this message being sent, Kokona forced herself to get up, her realizing her drowsiness then, and forced herself to wake up, sitting up and trying to come up with a decent lie.

Realizing the significance the man who screwed her hopes over had on her life, Kokona closed her eyes, cursing that man's existence.

* * *

A/N: Alright, another chapter done.

Hopefully you figured it out, but I used a different texting format for conversations between Kokona ( _like this_ ), Saki (like this) and Kai ( **like this** ).

You may also have figured that the manga you can find in the game are made by Kai in this story, with most of it being hentai and others being horror, one of which is so horrific that it makes Ayano, whose already a heartless killer, even _more_ heartless about killing.

Finally, for those of you reading this, you may be wondering which club president Ayano murdered.

Since there's no need for a mystery, the person she killed was the Cooking Club president. I put that in there because in the chart Yandere Dev used for one video, the icon for the rival from the Cooking Club was there, preceded by Osana Naijimi's icon and the Drama Club president's icon (or at least I assume that's who the third icon belongs to, since it looks like Kokona).

Since Kokona's wikia page says she supposed to be the third rival, should she become an official rival to begin with, I decided to have Ayano simply off the second rival so this story could line up with the final game's rival lineup.

The other ones I'm not sure about in terms of order, though I think the Student Council President is going to be the last rival.


	5. Clubs

There came a simple sight before the boy as he stirred.

He would wake up inside an unfamiliar room, with a girl he'd never seen before looking down at him.

Sadness tinged her gaze as she looked down at him, and the boy felt his lips moving, but no words came out.

The girl, sitting on her knees, continued to look down at him sadly for so long he lost track of the time.

Her appearance was somewhat strange, in that she looked somewhat tired.

The boy repeatedly tried to question the girl above him, wondering why she looked so sad.

Eventually, he lifted his body into a sitting position, staring at the girl curiously.

She looked sickly pale, her skin almost blue in hue.

Then something occurred to the boy about this girl, something that he was astonished he hadn't noticed before.

Her eyes were blank.

They lacked irises, there only being the blue-white scelera she had.

He lifted his hand up to her, him looking hesitant, before he pressed a hand against her body.

It pushed right through her, and the boy's eyes widened as he looked up at her, meeting her iris-less gaze once more.

Was she a ghost?

She continued to stare at him, reaching up and cupping his cheek delicately.

She lifted her other hand up, making her hand going into fixed positions.

Sign Language, the boy realized.

He read her hand carefully, and blinked at what she said to him.

 _"It's going to be okay."_

What?

He wanted to ask this of her, but, again, no words came out of his mouth.

Whilst feeling frustration, the boy felt his vision turn blurry, him becoming dizzy very suddenly, the girl before him losing a large deal of focus.

He could make out only one sentence she said via hand signs.

 _"You'll understand soon enough."_

* * *

Though Kai woke up, his eyes remained closed for a moment.

Bringing his right fist to lie on top of his forehead, Kai eventually opened his eyes, his right eye's vision blocked partially by his hand and wrist.

Had that been another vision he'd gotten as he slept?

Closing his eyes again, Kai pondered the possibility, but came to an inconclusive decision about it.

Being spiritual, he firmly believed that the existence of spirits wasn't a fallible perspective humans had aquired over the countless centuries, but the geniune article.

But what was the girl in the dream?

While he believed demons were a type of evil spirit, she didn't strike him as an especially bad person, even if she was a ghost.

As time passed, the idea of his dream being one of his visions felt ridiculous the more he thought about it.

Yet, he reasoned, when he believed that, in the past, there had been a prophet that called down flames from the skies because he had such faith in his God, along with the man most pivotal to his religion's existence being able to cure people of virtually any illness by brushing his clothes against them, how far fetched a concept was a ghost that wasn't a demon?

He mentally sighed.

It'd be best not to dwell on that vision, he decided.

If it turned out he'd be meeting a ghost or something someday, he'd just accept it without question like most of the other things in his life.

Without any further thought, he rose up in bed, mentally saying a prayer for being alive for another day, despite it being rather early in the morning for most, it being the crack of dawn.

* * *

Kokona walked with a troubled expression to school.

The morning had found her to be tired out, even more so than usual, and with a semblance of a wish where time could flow in reverse for her, she had gotten up and ready for school.

In the present, as she walked there, the girl dreaded the idea of actually reaching the school.

However, unlike the night before, her opposition to going wasn't so great that she found the inability to walk within herself.

This didn't change the fact that her insides felt like they churned around badly, her nervousness culminating itself into what she could only describe as paranoia.

Her glances around herself, to the schoolmates who walked the same route as she did, carried a faint suspicion that people were looking at her differently than the day before.

Whether this was her imagination or not, Kokona couldn't tell.

She sighed softly, feeling her phone vibrating a second later.

Pulling it out, she realized it had been from the same boy who'd helped her yesterday.

 **Good morning. Did you rest well yesterday?**

 _I rested well enough. Did you?_

 **I'd say so.  
Were you busy yesterday?**

 _Yes._

 **May I ask with what?**

 _Some weird misunderstanding with my friends. It's nothing._

 **I see.  
Is it possible that we could go to the maze today?**

Kokona blinked at this.

 _You actually want to go?_

 **Seeing as how I'm a little scared of someone else picking my manga up, I'd prefer to find them the first chance I get.**

 _What's in those manga that you don't want people to see?_

 **The darkest depths of my imagination, and therefore the darkest depths of humanity's terrible ways, drawn on paper.**

 _I'm sure it can't be that bad._

 **You don't know the half of it. God bless anyone who gets their hands on it so that they don't read what's inside.**

* * *

As though on cue, on the school grounds, one Ayano Aishi bent down on the inside of a school maze and picked up a large, thick manga volume, staring at the cover for a long moment.

* * *

 _Regardless, I'm sorry, but I can't help you with that today._

 **Why not?**

 _I have something I need to take care of first. Maybe later._

 **Could I help you with whatever it is?**

 _No. This is something personal._

 **Are you sure you want to take care of it yourself?**

 _Positive._

 **Alright. Feel free to tell me if you change your mind.**

 _Okay._

Soon after replying this, Kokona realized she was about to reach the front of Akademi.

For a moment, Kokona froze up at this, the full realization of what she hoped to do weighing down on her shoulders at that moment.

She was going to lie to her only friends in the world, she thought.

All for the sake of keeping up a lie that she wasn't partaking in compensated dating, when she had been doing it despite her repulsion to it.

Thinking this, her gaze lowered down to her shoes, and she felt them grow harder to move as her nervousness built itself up inside of her.

Seeing this, she sighed, knowing this was typical for her.

She'd mentally prepare herself for something, yet whenever she was about to come close to coming face to face with the cause that made her try to create a mental shield in the first, she'd get so nervous that she'd immediately freeze up completely, as if going into shock.

The only times this hadn't been the case was when she was about to act as part of a play of some type.

But there was a huge difference between these two situations, Kokona thought with a sour expression.

When she was acting, she normally had a ton of lines made for her to say beforehand, her speaking the lines in as systematic a manner as possible, whereas, right then, she was trying to think up a believable lie.

To make matters worse than they already were, she didn't have an editor to point out the flaws in the story she hoped to tell her friends, something plays often had to make the story being told more believable by human standards.

Due to Kokona lacking this for obvious reasons, she couldn't find it within herself to trust her lie at all.

Her troubled expression returned to her facial structure, mixing with the tired one she had a moment ago.

She missed the old days, where she didn't have to worry about her financial situation at all, when her father wasn't an alcoholic, where her mother was still alive and well.

She looked up at Akademi again, sighing softly.

"I hate my life." She whispered softly to herself.

She walked forward again, taking a few steps past the gate when her phone vibrated for a moment, then stopped.

She looked down at her pocket in interest when she felt it start to vibrate again, and pulling it out of her skirt pocket, she looked at the number to see who was calling her.

Her face instantly reflected antipathy at the fact that it was a blocked number.

Upon answering the call, Kokona's voice was toneless, her eyes shifted into a scowl, "Hello?"

"Hello. It's me again."

At least this man had called before she officially entered the school itself, she thought.

"Yeah, I noticed." The toneless voice gained several condescending undertones. "Would you mind telling me why you lied to me yesterday?"

"I got the feeling you wouldn't have agreed to see me again if I gave you all the money."

"And you thought cheating me out of it was going to help that?" Kokona wished she were with the man then, so that she could chew him out the way she wanted to.

"How else would I be sure you'd see me again if I asked?"

Bitterness found itself into her voice.

"Not getting my hopes up that you would stick to what you said maybe?"

The man's playful tone in response seemed all the more infuriating to her.

"Come on. Don't act like you didn't enjoy it."

"I'm not acting. I hated every last second of it."

"It seemed like you enjoyed it to me."

"I was acting then. I'm not doing it now." Kokona retorted with brutal honesty.

"Would that mean that we won't be seeing each other again?" Disappointment tinged the man's voice.

"The only way I'd ever agree to see you again is if you agreed to pay me my money back, with interest for not giving it all to me in the first place." Her hand held her hip at this.

"Okay. That's fair enough." His once playful tone had dissipated as he said this.

"Good." Kokona closed her eyes.

"Does that mean we can meet at the same place as before?" The man's voice rose a bit, as though in hope.

"If you bring what you owe me, then I'll think about it."

"Then I'll bring all of it and -"

She didn't even wait to hear the man's full reply before she hung up on him, walking forward again.

Despite this, her phone starting to vibrate again a few moments later made Kokona look down at her screen to see that a blocked phone number was calling her again.

As she answered the phone, she couldn't help feigning an innocent tone of voice.

"Hello?"

"Don't hang up on me like that." The man's voice had become rough with anger.

This sign of annoyance gave Kokona the ability to smile again at his expense.

"Is that anger I hear?" She said in a playful tone, her seeking righteous emotional vengeance on this man, "I'm sorry. It might be that since you seemed to have forgotten how to count, I seem to have forgotten how to end a phone call."

There came a moment of silence, and the man's voice implied that he was trying to control his emotions as he replied, "I see. So that's how it is."

"You at least deserve this kind of treatment after the things you put me through." Kokona said, her knowing she was enjoying hearing him feel pissed off a little much and not caring. "Is that fair enough for you?"

"Yes. As I was saying, I'll bring you all of the money and more to compensate for last night."

"You'd better." Kokona dropped her mock-innocent tone as she replied this. "I'll see you later."

"Until then."

She hung up again, Kokona walking forward once more.

Once she reached her shoe locker, Kokona realized she felt a bit better.

Needless to say, she didn't feel happy about seeing the man again, but she felt happy that she would most likely wouldn't be seeing him again after tonight, since she would have the full 50,000 yen.

She had already decided that she wouldn't be going to that love hotel again, even before she'd had that phone call.

The only thing she needed to do now was find a way to convince her friends that she wasn't taking part in compensated dating.

This would be easier said than done, but the girl knew she needed to try regardless of this.

Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves, Kokona walked outside, into the school plaza.

She saw that something was clearly wrong upon her entering said plaza however.

On the right side of the fountain that stood at the center of the plaza were a group of boys, standing as they often did as they conversed amongst one another.

Sitting on the fountain itself was Yamada, him notably looking a bit less detached than the day before but otherwise the same.

On the left side of the fountain however, Kokona found that her group of friends wasn't there.

On the one hand, she felt immediate confusion upon seeing that no one was there.

On the other, she felt a mixture of relief and dread, relief for the fact that she wouldn't have to face them yet, and dread for the fact that she might not have the ability to speak well with them when she eventually did face them.

Sighing softly, she walked forward, going around the center of the plaza and finding a seat on the fountain in a similar way to Yamada, leaning forward and pressing her elbows into her knees, holding her face almost boredly as she sat in silence.

Though the sound of her friends talking was abnormally absent, Kokona found that she could enjoy the sound of the fountain's waters running behind her, it making her feel at a strange peace.

For a long time, she sat there and waited for her friends to arrive, her gradually becoming less worried about telling them a lie, and more worried about their whereabouts.

Where could they have gone, Kokona wondered, for them to not be there today?

"Excuse me, Haruka?"

At the sound of someone calling her name, Kokona looked up, blinking at the sight of one of the Drama Club members being in front of her.

"Yes?" Kokona stood up, looking at him curiously.

"Could you come to the club for a minute? Everyone's waiting for you."

She looked at him confusedly, "For me? Why?"

He didn't seem to meet her eyes as he answered her.

"It's a mandatory meeting. Everyone has to come."

She tilted her head to look at the boy in front of her strangely, but shrugged anyways, "Alright. Let's go then."

It wasn't as if she was doing something more important, Kokona thought, looking behind herself at the fountain, the place her friends usually were being empty still.

* * *

The day had started normally enough for the members of the Occult Club as was expected.

They would go to school with their dog collars fastened on their neck, and after meeting with one another at the school entrance for a short amount of time, Shin, the stand-in leader of the group, decided to go to the Occult Club room to light the ceremonial candles in the room.

When he reached the hallway that led to the Occult Club however, Shin would blink in surprise at what, or rather who, he found there.

Kai stood at the entrance, looking somewhat uncertain as he paced the hall, never going too far away the Occult Club room despite this.

When he turned in one of many cycles to look in the direction Shin was standing in, the uncertainty within his expression dissipated as his face lit up, him smiling as he ran to close the space between himself and the boy with dark hair.

"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you, but do you remember me from yesterday?" Kai asked, to which Shin nodded, looking at him confusedly.

Why was this guy here again?

"I came here because I had a chance to look at all of the clubs, and in the end, I wanted to join the Occult Club."

Shin's expression became taken aback in an instant.

"You... You actually want to join?"

"Yeah." Kai rubbed his head, "That's okay, isn't it?"

Shin nodded his head, "Yes, of course it's okay. I'm just surprised is all."

"I guess I can understand that." Kai's gaze found the door. "It's just that I think this club would be most beneficial for me."

"Really?" Shin asked in a surprised manner. "Why do you say that?"

"Your club president said we'd study different supernatural things, right?" Kai looked back at him. "Seeing as how that interests me the most, it's only natural that I join this club, right?"

Shin's gaze suddenly found interest in looking anywhere but at Kai's eyes.

"I... guess..."

Kai picked up on his sudden hesitance.

"What's wrong?"

He didn't reply for a moment.

"... it's just... most of the Occult Club's activities center around summoning a demon..."

Shin knew that this might scare Kai away, but he knew he couldn't let him join without knowing this.

"What?" Kai tilted his head, him certain that he hadn't heard the guy in front of him right.

Surely, by saying his club was trying to summon a demon (pronounced "oni" in Japanese), he really meant that they were trying to summon a sibling (pronounced "onee" in Japanese), right?

"Our club has been trying to summon a demon for months now. Since we're in the Occult Club, we want to meet a demon."

"Ah... I see..."

It seemed he really did mean "demon" when he said that after all, Kai thought.

"Would you be willing to join the club, knowing that?" Shin looked back at him once more.

Kai looked down slightly in thought, then looked into Shin's eyes again, nodding despite himself.

Shin looked somewhat surprised at that.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Kai looked down again.

If it turned out they were to really summon a demon, Kai would probably run the risk of getting possessed, he knew this.

At the same time, he'd already decided within himself to do everything he could to keep his vision about his senpai commiting suicide from coming true.

"If you guys end up summoning a demon, I think I'd have a few things to ask it." Kai added.

He only hoped said demon wouldn't turn out to be the lying or sadistic type.

If it turned out to be the former, Kai most likely wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the truth and lies, when it had countless centuries' worth of time to practice lying, and if it were the latter, he was sure the Occult club would mysteriously go the route of the typical cult meeting turned mass suicide, or worse, go down the path of the biblical man Legion had gone.

This would include the members of the Occult Club making the local cemetary their new home, complete with them running around in a shameless nakedness, cutting themselves for no apparent reason, and screaming for the entire world to hear, with the strongest of shackles doing nothing to keep them bound.

For a moment, he thought the lustful type of demon might be less harmful, then remembered the incubi/succubi demons and dismissed them from being likable demons outright.

Shin watched Kai go into a moment of thought, and started pulling his phone out, him soon calling his club president.

After waiting for a few moments of the phone ringing, Shin heard Oka's voice fill his ear.

"H-Hello?"

"Hello President." Shin replied.

"Higaku? Is there something wrong?"

She had probably just woken up, Shin thought.

"No. I was just calling because the person who came by to ask about the club yesterday said he wanted to join."

"R-Really?" Oka said in surprise.

"Yes. Could you talk to him?" Shin glanced over at Kai again, who, realizing that the boy's attention was on him once more, paid attention in turn.

"Yes." Oka replied, her sounding as though she were trying to steel herself, Shin handing the phone over to Kai, who took it and brought it to his ear.

"Hello?" Kai said.

"Yes - Hello." The girl's voice came out hurriedly, as though she was nervous.

"Is this the club president?"

"Yes. You wanted to join the club?"

"Yes, I did."

Her tone seemed somewhat elated as she replied.

"This is wonderful news... perhaps the world isn't such a dark and lonely place after all..."

Kai blinked at these words.

"President?"

She seemed to realize what she'd said, and she seemed to recollect herself.

"Um... anyway... you're an official club member now..."

"Awesome." Kai replied.

She chuckled lightly in response.

"I do have a question though." Kai looked at the entrance to the Occult Club door.

"Oh... Yes...?"

"It's been brought to my attention that the club has been trying to summon a demon. Is that true?"

"Oh. Yes, it is."

"I'm willing to help, but I'm curious about why you're trying to summon one."

"Well..."

After trailing off, Kai's new club president started to explain.

* * *

Kokona walked into her club room after the boy leading her there opened the door for her.

She had found it weird that the boy had knocked loudly on the door when they reached that area, but didn't say anything about it.

Upon entering, she also found it strange that the room's windows had curtains covering them, blocking out the sunlight and making the room darker.

"Hello Haruka, Kokona." A deep male voice said in the darkness.

She strained her eyes to see who it was, but couldn't.

"Yes?"

"We would like to congratulate you." Another voice said, this one being female.

Again, Kokona tried to strain her sight to see who it was, but couldn't.

"Congratulate me for what? And why is this room so dark?"

Someone flicked on the light switch, and when she saw that she was surrounded by people who were dressed in black cloaks that concealed most of their faces, Kokona jumped and gave a small squeal of surprise.

"What are you guys doing?" She asked loudly as she looked around the room.

"The time for questions has ended for you. The time for judgement is nigh." Another voice said.

Then, in a perfect sync, the entire mass of robed figures marched forward, and Kokona took a step back, eyes widened when they raised their hands up, her realizing they held what seemed to be katanas in their hands.

"We've only one question to ask." A male voice spoke, emitting from the center of the group of robed figures.

"Are you ready to be our leader?" The group spoke in perfect sync, their harmonic voice booming within the room.

"Huh?" Kokona stared at the collective group in confusion.

"All who accept this girl as our leader, kneel and lower your weapons."

Most of the robed figures in the room did as the male ordered.

He addressed the few who didn't a moment later.

"Those who don't accept her, speak your grievances."

"I will only accept you if you promise to be even better than our last leader." A female voice spoke to Kokona.

"Kneel." The male said to her, and she attained a position similar to her counterparts.

"I will only accept you if you allow for us to have different plays to do." A male said firmly.

"Kneel." The male said to the second robed figure, him kneeling down.

"I will only accept you if you never let us slack off as actors." The third and final robed figure said, it being a female.

"Kneel."

Kokona watched as all but one of the robed figures kneeled before her, and she noticed that the one who didn't kneel also didn't have a katana.

She watched as he walked forward, his hands held behind his back, and stood in front of her.

"All grievances are spoken, and the judgement is over. Do you accept this, Haruka?"

"Accept what?" Kokona was thoroughly confused by this point.

What were these guys doing?

He had been moving his hands from behind his back, his right hand holding something red in it.

Looking down at what it was, Kokona's eyes widened.

"Will you be our Club President?"

In the male's hands was a red armband, meant only for the position he had just asked Kokona to have.

"What...?" Kokona was left speechless at this.

"I see. So you're unable to comprehend it." The male's voice lost the dramatic undertone it once had, and he lifted his head.

Now able to see his voice and recognize his voice, Kokona realized who it was.

"Dorama, what are you doing?"

"You still haven't answered our question Haruka." Mellow Dorama replied. "It'd hardly be fair if you were to expect me to answer."

Kokona fell silent, her looking down at the armhand Dorama held in his hand.

"Why me?"

"We voted for you. Everyone except for you and the three people who spoke a second ago voted for someone else."

Kokona blinked, her looking at all of the veiled faces that kneeled before her in the room, then looked back down at the armband.

"I... I don't know what to say..."

"Will you be our president?" Dorama asked again.

Kokona looked around the room, then reached up, taking the armband, smiling up at him, "Yes, I will."

"Good." Dorama turned away, his voice gaining the same dramatic tone as before. "Our president has accepted!"

As though released from a spell, each and every one of the robed figures unhooded themselves, their faces revealing a smile as they all applauded Kokona.

Under the applause, Kokona felt her face grow red despite her smile.

"Thank you everyone." She said softly, pushing her hand through the hole of the armband and putting it on, it squeezing lightly around her upper arm.

As though on cue, the warning bell for class rang, and everyone looked over at Kokona.

"Permission to leave President Haruka?" Dorama asked, his tone becoming faintly militaristic now.

"Y-Yes." Kokona said, her watching as everyone hurried to take off their robes, throwing them in a large pile before picking up their binders and running out of the club room.

As the last few people filed out, Kokona walked out herself, making a slight jog to her classroom, her worries momentarily forgotten as she reveled in the feeling of gaining this unexpected authority.

* * *

 **A/N: Cyber-cookies for anyone who figures out what Mellow Dorama's name is a pun of.**


	6. Friends

Discomfort was something to be expected, Kai thought to himself.

After joining the Occult Club, Shin had given him a dog collar for him to wear as part of the club uniform.

When Kai thought back to the exchange, it having happened just a minute ago, he would sigh.

"Why are we supposed to be wearing these things?" Kai asked the obvious question after fastening his collar on his neck, him realizing then just how uncomfortable it felt for his neck to be squeezed on all sides. "We aren't animals."

"Well, when you think about it, aren't we all basically animals, when you take societal consequences out of the picture?" Shin replied after a moment of looking at the collar to discern if it was placed on right, him bent slightly over as he stared at Kai's neck, hands on his knees, his dark eyes only leaving the collar when he asked the question.

"Yes. But we are not in a picture like that." Kai replied dryly. "We're in a picture of a high school club room turned into a demonic summoning place. Societal consequences were spawned because of demons in the first place."

He said this due to them standing within the club room, Shin having taken the dog collar out for him inside there.

"And that's why we're wearing these collars. We're basically animals in comparison to demons." Shin had the slightest trace of a smile on his tired face then.

Kai's spiritual beliefs robbed him the ability to say anything back, him nodding half-heartedly despite himself.

"Yeah." He agreed unconvincingly while looking away.

In the present, Kai tugged at the collar that wrapped around his neck snugly, eyes half-lidded.

Apparently, a club president had the ability to alter the school uniform for the members of the club they headed.

In the case of the Martial Arts Club, the president of said club, Budo Masuta, the members all wore headbands.

If he wasn't mistaken, Kai was certain that the add-ons to the uniform weren't mandatory unless said by the president themself.

It seemed that in this case, Oka had chosen to make it mandatory of her club members.

Either that, or no one ever bothered to ask.

This wasn't his idea of a club to join, he thought to himself.

While he had gone through the process of looking through all of the clubs before and after he met his senpai, the Occult Club grew farther and farther out of his idea of who the ideal club would be.

He honestly wanted to join the Martial Arts or Sports Clubs.

But due to him feeling obligated to ensuring his senpai's safety, the Occult Club became the first candidate in regards to that.

If his senpai hadn't been his friend, her pointing out the strangeness of calling them friends so quickly notwithstanding, he wouldn't have joined the Occult Club at all.

Yet there he was, in all of his dogged glory, wearing a dog collar with a crescent moon shape on it despite how uncomfortably it wrapped around his neck.

Part of him wondered if being reduced to the equivalent of a member of a gothic demon-summoning group was worth hoping to find information about his abilities that might not even be there.

Despite these thoughts, Kai remembered the sight of the girl in his dream two days ago trying to commit suicide, and all protest to this circumstance he'd thrust himself into died within him.

He wouldn't let her die, he thought with a determined glint entering his eyes.

* * *

When Kokona walked into her classroom, she found Saki standing near her desk with a troubled expression, Kokona walking up to her, "Morning Saki."

The girl looked up at her, Kokona's voice seeming to surprise her, and she nodded, her weakly smiling at her, "Hey Kokona."

"What's wrong?" Kokona asked her.

"It's nothing. I just lost something is all. It'll turn up eventually." Saki said hurriedly.

Kokona raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn't bode on the subject for too long.

"Where were you guys earlier?" Kokona asked her with a hand placing itself on her hip, "I ended waiting for a while, but no one showed up at the fountain today."

Saki's troubled expression intensified then.

"Kokona... Remember that post from yesterday?" Saki muttered with a low tone, glancing around herself to see if anyone was eavesdropping.

It took the girl a moment to remember, but when she realized, her eyes widened, her managing to keep her face from reflecting the dread she'd felt before becoming a club president.

That was right, she'd forgotten about her friends in the excitement.

"Yes, what about it?"

"It's all a big misunderstanding, right?" Saki asked uncertainly.

"Yes." Kokona lied without a second thought. "Why would you believe a post like that?"

Her lying aside, why was that all of her friends, sans Saki, automatically assumed that the post on Fakebook had been true?

Even in Yuna's case, where she said she'd seen Kokona in Shisuta Town the week before then, she could've at least asked Kokona herself if it had been true or not before commenting that.

Granted, she probably would've lied to Yuna anyways, but that was besides the point.

If it turned out that it wasn't true, then what would people assume of her afterwards if they saw that post and never bothered to ask her about it before making assumptions?

Kokona once had faith that her friends would at least try to discern it for themselves if it was true, but now she wasn't so sure.

"I don't believe something like that. I think it's ridiculous." Saki retorted with strong, genuine exasperation. "But then the person who made that post started posting pictures of you going into a... hotel with a guy and coming out hours after he left." Saki barely stopped herself from calling the hotel a "love hotel".

Kokona's heart stopped briefly at these words.

Saki, unaware of this, kept speaking, "And now everyone's convinced you really are doing that sort of thing. They said they want to believe you didn't do it, but they couldn't understand how it couldn't be you. You can explain it to them, can't you Kokona?"

She looked up at her when she asked the question.

She doubted her, Kokona could tell, but she also seemed to believe she could explain it.

Kokona mentally sighed.

"Yes. I can explain." Kokona said, forcing a reassuring smile onto her face.

"Alright," the traces of doubt in Saki's face dissipated instantly, "Could you tell the others when you have the chance?"

Kokona nodded in affirmation.

"Great." Saki smiled, looking down at Kokona's armband, "I see the club picked you as president."

Kokona's forced smile became natural in a fast transition.

"Yeah. I could barely believe it when they gave it to me, but I'm president now." Kokona found herself laughing lightly at the memory of her entire club getting into an obviously well rehearsed skit just to declare her as the president.

She was about the tell Saki about it, but at that moment, the bell signalling that class-time started rang, and with a quick goodbye, Saki walked off and went to her seat, Kokona sitting in her own seat as people did the same as her.

Left alone to her thoughts, Kokona couldn't help wondering what lie would actually convince her friends that she wasn't compensated dating.

The question of this lingered strongly within her mind until lunch time, and even by then, she couldn't think of an answer.

When the bell rang for lunch, Kokona and Saki paired together as they always did and walked out of the classroom, the purple haired girl about to go up the stairs when Saki's voice stopped her.

"Wait, Kokona," Kokona's hand, reaching for the railing of the stairs, stopped as she turned to her friend, "Everyone decided we'd be going to go to the cafeteria today."

"Really?" Kokona gave a surprised look.

They'd used the cafeteria to talk and everything before, it wasn't as though Kokona was necessarily against it, but that was usually reserved for the winter days, when it was simply too cold for there to be any justification to go to the roof for their lunch period.

They weren't in winter however; spring was still going strong at that moment, edging towards summer even.

Kokona surmised it had probably been Yui or Yuna who suggested this, since the group felt weird not talking where they usually did without good reason.

"Yes. Come on." Saki said enthusiastically.

This contrasted greatly to Kokona's emotions on the matter. She found that she didn't want to face her friends in that moment, to try lying to them.

If the post really did have pictures, then what proof could ever hope to be more solid than that?

Kokona mentally sighed fitfully, her walking behind Saki as she went down the stairs, her mind conjuring the image of her walking down the steps to Hell as she descended, knowing deep down that, with not even a decent lie formed, that was where the one social sanctuary she had would probably be going.

As she walked down to the second floor, the floor with the cafeteria in it, Kokona would walk for a moment before stopping in her tracks, eyes widening in sync with the boy who looked at her in surprise.

Kai looked at his senpai and smiled warmly towards her, "Hey, how's your day going so far?"

"It's going pretty fine." Kokona said, her realizing then that she had become extremely nervous, whilst going down the steps, by hearing her own voice.

"Really?" He must have noticed too, as he looked skeptic.

She looked ahead of herself, seeing Saki turning to look back at her questioningly, some of her friends there already.

Kai followed Kokona's gaze, and seeing the girls looking his way, he looked back at his senpai, "Are those your friends?"

Kokona felt herself jump slightly, then nodded her head at his question, "Yes, they are."

"I see." Kai gave a sheepish smile to her. "I was about to ask if you'd be willing to help me look for the manga now, but I don't want to get in the way of your free time if you want to spend it doing something else."  
Her internal voice screamed about how she wanted to do that more than anything else, with it embodying the part of her that wanted to avoid her friends at all costs, even if it meant going into a maze for something as dumb as manga someone dropped (albeit with good, or, at least, understandable, reasons).

Her polite smile reflected how much of a Stepford Smiler she was becoming however.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I can't do it now."

"That's fine." Kai's eyes found her armband, a hand finding his hip. "I didn't think you were a club president though."

"Oh, this?" Kokona pointed at her armband, smiling despite herself, "I just became the club president this morning actually."

"Really?" Kai looked up at her, surprise taking his expression.

When Kokona nodded, Kai sighed.

"What?" She asked in confusion to this.

"I would've tried joining your club if I'd known." Kai said, crossing his arms and speaking with a disappointed tone.

"Well, seeing as how I'm the club president, you can join now." Kokona pointed out, the arm with the red band of leadership on it bending, the hand attached to it finding her hip.

"I would, but I just joined another club today." Kai sighed fitfully.

"Oh." Kokona deflated from the cofidence she didn't realize had welled up in her. For the sake of conversation, she then asked, "What club did you join then?"

"I joined the Occult Club." As Kai reached into his pocket, Kokona gave a perplexed look at the young man before her.

Seeing her look, Kai pouted slightly at her, "Hey, I have my reasons," he looked down slightly, "And besides, it's not as bad as it sounds."

"A Bible-quoting Christian joining a club dedicated to the Occult." Kokona voiced her view of his words by saying this. "How can it not be as bad as it sounds?"

"It's simple really." Kai pulled his hand out of his pocket, looking at his dog collar. "It's not as bad as it sounds. That's because it's actually much, MUCH worse."

He said this, not in an dramatic fashion, but in a deadpan, matter-of-fact tone.

"Really?" Kokona quirked an eyebrow at him. "How so?"

"For starters, if all goes according to the club's plans, we will probably end up summoning a demon." He said this with a look that embodied the idea of adhering emotions while crossing his arms; it was clear he felt something, but it was hard to tell what exactly.

Despite this however, Kokona could only say one thing in response after recovering from her surprise.

"... _what_?" Kokona stared at him incredulously.

"Exactly my reaction." Kai said with an added sigh, uncrossing his arms and shrugging his shoulders.

"They told you that after you joined the club?"

"No." He shook his head, opening his closed eyes. "Right before I joined."

"Why would you join knowing they're trying to do something like that?" Kokona asked loudly, not caring for any looks at that moment.

Christian or not, anyone reckless enough to try summoning a demon, after the countless horror movies in existence that made the powerful implication that so much as being near a demon spelled trouble for anyone, would be easily the dumbest person in the world in her book.

He sighed, not meeting her eyes again as he answered her, "I told you, I have my own reasons. In all honesty, I hope they don't summon anything undesirable, but I don't have much control over them."

She stared up at him for a moment longer, then nodded slowly, but reluctantly.

A moment of silence passed both of them by, and sensing the awkwardness of the air between them, Kai decided to change the subject.

"Anyways," he met her eyes again, "You said you just became president today, right?"

Kokona nodded silently.

"Okay. Congratulations then." Kai made a half-glance behind himself, "You said those girls over there are your friends, right?"

Kokona blinked, realizing she'd momentarily forgotten her friends for a moment.

Realizing she'd developed a habit of quickly forgetting the things she felt negative emotions towards, Kokona mentally sighed.

She'd willfully ignored up until then, but now it was inevitable to address it.

She had a bad habit of just letting her mind blank out on problems she had in times when she didn't want to confront the memory of thought.

It was becoming worse by the day, she admitted to herself.

"Senpai?" The boy's voice broke her from her lapse of thought, and she looked up at him in surprise.

"Uh... Y-Yes." Kokona mentally hit herself in the head, looking back at her friends.

They were now watching the duo closely, and Kokona smiled apologetically at them.

Hearing her answer, Kai turned around, "Okay, give me a second to talk to them. Then I'll get out of your hair."

"Huh?" Kokona blinked at the boy before her, him walking forward without waiting for her answer.

Then the words he'd said sunk into her mind, and she tried reaching out to him, "Wait."

Her voice came out softly, it apparently too soft for him to hear.

He just kept walking as though she'd said nothing.

As Kai came to a relatively close distance between him and the five girls who watched him curiously, he gave them an awkward smile, "Hello. Senpai told me you were her friends. Are you waiting for her?"

There came the slow reaction that supplemented into a yes as they turned their full attention to him.

"I see. I'll try to make this quick then." Kai replied, crossing his arms, "As her friends, do you know what type of things she likes?"

His intentions were immediately misunderstood by the people around him, them all looking at him in surprise.

The first to recover was Saki.

"Wait, why do you want to know something like that?"

He gave her a curious look for a moment, him considering telling her, but deciding against it for the sake of surprise.

"It's a secret." He smiled a bit more deviously than he would've liked to admit as he said this. "If I told you, it'd ruin the surprise for her."

"How long have you known Kokona?" Koharu asked him next.

So that was his senpai's name, he thought.

"Not very long," not even a day, he thought wryly.

"How did you meet her?" Yuna asked then.

For a moment, Kai wondered if these girls knew about Kokona falling from the roof, but following his better judgement, didn't bring that up in his answer.

"I just accidentally helped her and she's been my friend ever since." He tried to sum up as quickly as possible, his smile becoming more friendly now.

""Accidentally"?" Yui asked skeptically, arms crossed.

"Yes, accidentally." He met her red eyes.

They held each other's gaze for a moment, before Yui broke it through her voice.

"So long as I show you something first, I'll tell you all you want to know." She said, walking to his side while pulling out her phone.

She lifted the screen up and went to her Fakebook account, going through her posts quickly before finding the one from the night before.

Showing it to him, Kai read it quickly.

Today, I saw Kokona Haruka in Shisuta Town. She was engaging in compensated dating.

The above was what the opening post said.

His response was quick, his knowledge of compensated dating contributing a large factor to his reaction.

At the sight of the post, Kai's eyes half-lidded themselves, his reaction being immediate, his knowledge of compensated dating not factoring into it.

"Why are you showing me this?" He asked, giving the girl next to him a weird look.

"I wanted to let you know what you'd be getting into, since you're asking about Kokona."

"How is this supposed to help?" Kai looked down at her phone again.

To his great unnerving, the girl felt surprise for a moment, only to _smile_.

"There's more to it than that." She said, pressing a button on the screen to show the replies to the post.

As Kai looked down at the first few reply posts, only to look up at the posters whose pictures adorned the replies, he stopped when he'd read the fifth reply, looking at the girl who had been the one to post what he'd just read.

"Are you a third year, Miyu?" Kai asked while looking into her eyes.

Saki looked surprised for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay. Sorry if I'm being a bother, but after reading the posts here," Kai gave a half-glance to Yui's phone, "I would like to ask you what Kokona likes. I'll only go off your thoughts."

"What?" Saki looked over at Yui, her wondering what had brought this on.

Kai narrowed his eyes, but kept his tone even. "If you don't know Kokona-senpai enough, then that's fine. But I'd like your input."

"Why not us?" Yuna held her hips as she gazed at him with a puzzled look. "You were asking all of us a minute ago."

Kai's gaze found hers, and she felt surprise at the amount of scorn he conveyed through his eyesight for her, his cold voice adding to the effect, "I thought I was asking Kokona-senpai's FRIEND about her interests."

"Wha...?" Yuna barely realized she'd flinched at the venom that could be found in Kai's voice.

"I'll ask again," as abruptly as his tone changed, it reverted back to normal as he directed his attention to Saki once more, "Could you tell me what Kokona-senpai likes?"

"Hey." Saki narrowed her eyes at the boy before her. "I may not know you well, but you have no right to say they aren't Kokona's friends. Especially not with that attitude."

Kai's eyes flickered in realization, and he nodded, looking at Yuna, "Yes, that's right. I'm sorry about my being rude to you."

He even bowed his head in shame.

"... And?" Mei quipped in, arms crossed.

He raised his head to look at her, tilting his head in confusion, "What?"

"Will you apologize about saying we're not Kokona's friends?" Koharu asked.

"No." At their surprised expressions, Kai gave an undaunted shrug. "From what I saw a few seconds ago, there's no way I could apologize for that."

"What makes you so sure we aren't?" Saki asked.

"No, I'm more certain about you." Kai replied, arms crossing themselves. "It's these four I can't be sure about."

After nodding to them for emphasis, Kai looked at Saki again, "Could you answer my question, senpai?"

"No." Saki scowled at him. "Why would you call yourself Kokona's friend if you're being this mean to her real friends?"

""Real friends"?" Kai said, his tone unbelieving.

Seeing that Saki's offense at his words to her friends was genuine, he gave a dark, hollow chuckle, "No person who would say Kokona-senpai's taking part in compensating dating can call themself a friend."

Saki looked at Yui, who gazed at the back of Kai's head.

She hadn't shown him the Fakebook post, had she?

"The only reason why I haven't left at this point is because I still want to ask you a question." Kai's voice made her look back at him.

"Before I respond, tell me what makes you so sure that they aren't Kokona's friends." Saki said with a restrained tone, her voice inviting no room for rebuttal.

Thankfully, Kai had none to give.

He only shrugged after uncrossing his arms, "I thought it'd be obvious they weren't her friends, since they all supported the idea of her compensated dating without any hard proof backing it."

"But there is hard proof." Yui said behind him, and he turned around to face her, his apprehensiveness to this girl growing the more he looked at her.

"What?" Kai looked at her phone again as she lifted it up, him seeing different posted pictures.

One was of a girl with purple hair leaning against a man who was significantly older than her, the latter with an arm around her shoulder.

The next was of them standing apart, the girl looking as though she'd stepped away fro the man.

A third showed him pulling something of an envelope, with Kokona stopping, a fourth picture showing her moving to the man's side once more.

After the duo entered, the next picture showed that the building they entered was a love hotel.

A new picture, showing a clock in the background, showed the man leaving the hotel, with the next showing a shook up and visibly disheveled purple haired girl leaving the hotel in a rushed manner, the latter taking place hours before the former as the clock showed.

After seeing these pictures, Kai looked up at them.

"What is this supposed to prove exactly?"

"She was with an older guy who paid her money to go into that hotel with him. What do you think it should prove?" Yui asked defensively.

Kai looked down at the picture again, "I'm thinking it proves this is my boss that I'm looking at."

"Huh?" Yui's expression matched her words, it being stunned surprise.

"That old man is my boss." Kai pointed at the man in the picture for emphasis, speaking in a deadpan tone, "And if his habits say anything, I doubt Kokona even did anything all that bad."

"What do you mean?" Saki asked.

"My dear old boss has a habit of taking girls to photo shoots for the manga he's been making." He sighed lightly, "And since he's going into a love hotel, he's apparently doing a romantic scene. Assuming it was Kokona, then you shouldn't jump to the conclusion that it was compensated dating."

"This guy is your boss?" Yui said skeptically.

Despite Yui's skepticism, Saki felt faint hope filling her.

If this person was telling the truth, then that meant that Kokona really hadn't...

As she was thinking this, the boy spoke again.

"Yes." He pulled his own phone out, scrolling through its pictures before showing the picture to the girls.

When they discerned that the smiling man next to an awkwardly smiling Kai was the same as the posted pictures, the doubt flickered out of their eyes.

"And now, back to the current subject this conversation has turned to," he turned the phone screen off and put it in his pocket, turning to the girls present that weren't Saki, "I won't ask any of YOU what Kokona-senpai likes because you obviously don't care to wonder if she'd do that kind of thing in the first place." He glared at them, his once calm voice gradually becoming angrier. "All you did was automatically believe the worst possible assumption someone else made about your so-called friend. At least Miyu-senpai had enough faith in her to doubt it before outright accepting it as though it had to be true. If anyone's Kokona-senpai's friend out of all of you, it can only be her."

Of the four girls, only two - the green haired girl who'd helped him the day before, and the one blonde - seemed to want to say something, but though they opened their mouths, words wouldn't leave them.

"If you think I'm wrong," Kai started holding his hip, but his glare remained, "Then out of all you, how many of you can contact Kokona-senpai through the phone?"

They didn't seem to want to answer him.

After a moment of silence, Saki spoke, a hand grasping her elbow as she gazed at the floor, "All of them can."

Though she said it softly, everyone heard her.

"How many of you have talked to Kokona since you saw the post?" Kai asked.

Saki awkwardly raised her hand, but the four girls beside her seemed to be fixated on looking anywhere but at Kai, Koharu, Mei and Yui all looking down at the floor while Yuna looked at the wall on the opposite side of the hall she was on.

Their body language implied that they felt extremely uncomfortable then, but their silence and sudden inability to not raise their hands was enough of an answer for Kai.

He narrowed his eyes, but said nothing of it, going to Saki and looking down at her, "Miyu-senpai?"

"Yes?" She replied, looking up at him.

"I'm sorry if this makes me seem like a jerk, but could I give you my phone number?" This being the immediate aftermath of him telling her friends off, Saki didn't dare believe he'd have the nerve to ask this out of personal gain.

"You still wanted me to tell you what Kokona likes?" She asked, her voice still soft.

"Yes. But I'd rather you tell me later. I don't think I'm in the right emotional state to know now."

Saki nodded her understanding, Kai bringing out his phone for her and typing up his number, showing it to her, "Here."

After Saki took out her own phone and put Kai's number into her cell, she looked up at him and nodded.

Seeing this, Kai put his phone away, bowing his head slightly to her, "Sorry for the intrusion."

He turned around, not even acknowledging the other girls stares as he walked away.

He was halfway down the hall when he passed by Kokona, who hadn't heard much of anything he'd said, and seeing the expression Kai had on his face, she called out to him, "Kohai."

Kai stopped at Kokona's voice, turning to look back at her, the scowl he had softening to his normal expression at the sight of her.

"What was that all about?" Kokona asked. "Why are you so angry?"

"Did you hear anything I said?" Kai asked in a simple tone.

"No. All I heard was you yelling a few seconds before leaving."

Kai sighed lightly, "I didn't like what your friends said behind your back, so I said so. I guess I let my emotions get the better of me after that."

He looked away from her as he said this, remembering that he'd recalled his dream-vision of Kokona trying to commit suicide as he talked to that group of girls.

When no one but Saki said yes to his last question related to the group, he'd barely stopped himself from saying, as a warning, to be careful what they did, as consequences were deadly.

He knew next to nothing about her suicide attempt (he hoped it would turn out to be a mere attempt at least), only that he had to prevent it.

For all he knew, they could've caused her to commit suicide from not trusting her innocence.

He didn't want to risk that.

Kai turned away from Kokona, walking away, "I hope all goes well with you."

Staring after him a moment, Kokona turned around, looking to her friends, who looked a bit down.

Not knowing what else to do, she walked to them, her voice a bit hesitant as she came close to them, "Are you all okay?"

They looked up at her, and Kokona felt surprise when their eyes reflected guilt.

She looked behind herself, towards the brown skinned boy who'd passed by her half a minute before, "What did he say to you?"

"Kokona?" Koharu's voice made Kokona turn to look at her, and she stepped closer to the purple haired girl. "Is it true that you've been with that old guy because he was taking pictures for a manga?"

Kokona blinked in surprise at her.

"How did you...?"

"So it's true then?" Koharu asked, hesitantly, her eyes seeming to flicker, as though a truth was dawning on her.

"Well... yeah..." Kokona said with obvious hesitance.

That old man had hired her to take pictures for a manga, just as Koharu had asked.

He'd been paying her money to compensate for her time as she did the numerous poses and such for the manga, him claiming that he needed them to reference its many pictures.

Though Kokona found it weird, she reasoned with herself that since drawing manga was something difficult, the man would have to at least know what he was doing for him to need her to be the subject of most of his pictures.

Though it had been a few months ago when she'd started doing it, it had only been a few days ago when things had gone too far.

She kept herself from shuddering at the memory.

To her surprise, Koharu bent down bowing her head to her, "I'm sorry for assuming that you were compensated dating then."

Kokona looked surprised at this.

"You're apologizing?"

Koharu's head was still lowered as she spoke, "Well... yeah, of course. You read that Fakebook post, right?"

"I did." Kokona tilted her head at her friend, but couldn't see her face, "But why are you apologizing? Didn't you guys want me to explain?"

She looked at Saki in questioning.

She smiled bitterly at her in response to her look.

"There's no need. That guy did it for you. And I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. So I'm sorry about that." Koharu said, gaze lowered still.

For a moment more, Kokona simply stared down at her friend, eyes wide in shock.

Then Mei caught her attention by stepping forward, "I'm sorry too Kokona."

She bowed next to Koharu, to her left.

Yui and Yuna shared a look, then they too stepped forward.

After taking their positions next to the first two to bow, they both spoke their apologies like their predecessors, bowing down to Kokona.

Finally, Saki walked forward, next to Mei, and bowed as well, her smile gone now, "And I'm sorry too, for ever doubting you Kokona."

Kokona stared down at their heads, her driven to speechlessness at this.

"Would you be willing to forgive us?" Koharu asked after a moment of silence.

Kokona could feel her lips twitchng upwards, but she spoke in as calm a voice as possible, "All of you, stand up."

Hearing her voice, filled with a nigh-toneless emotion, the five girls stood up straight.

Seeing Kokona staring at them, they were shocked at what they saw.

Tears spilled freely from her eyes.

Yet, from her smile, they seemed to be tears of joy.

Closing her crying eyes, Kokona bowed before them, "Thank you all, for being such good friends."

Seeing her bow to them, with such a grateful tone, guilt flickered in the girls' eyes, remembering the boy's words towards them.

They weren't good enough to be her friends, they thought simultaneously.

Looking between one another, they knew they shared this thought.

Kokona deserved better.

As the boy from before had said, in his justified anger, they couldn't be called Kokona's friends.

The post would have been harmless on its own, just a random accusation, but now that they'd replied, with all of them either adding to the fire or simply accepting it, the damage would be that much worse.

With a grim note being in the air then, the girls looked back at the bowing Kokona, and they walked around her, making a circle around her.

"Kokona?"

The girl raised her head, watery eyes looking between them all in confusion.

"Yes?" She asked.

She had been happy in that moment, but at the same time, had felt guilt for their guilt towards her.

The past couple of days had been ones where she took part in compensated dating (she depressedly realized then that she was actively using "compensated dating" as a euphemism for prostitution at that point), and her friends felt bad for assuming what had really been the truth.

She was happy because they'd realized that they were wrong for assuming something so looked down upon in society was something she'd been taken part of, she knew she had no qualms about that.

Them apologizing for this therefore prompted her to show her own gratitude.

She wasn't sure if she'd feel greater joy or offense if it turned out their assumptions were completely wrong however.

What sort of friends would they be, if they immediately assumed she was doing something like that when she never had once? Kokona wondered.

As they stood around her, Saki stepped forward first, wrapping Kokona in the arms of her embrace, the club president's eyes widening slightly.

The next to step forward was Yui, and after she joined the hug, the last three of their group hugged her then, sandwhiching Kokona from all possible sides.

As she felt the realization of what was happening come to her, Kokona slowly completed the group hug, them standing together for a few untouched seconds more.

Amidst the combined embrace of her friends, Kokona doubted she ever felt safer at any time in her life.

The calming silence that fell between them put her at ease, and she couldn't help breathing a sigh of content relaxation.

Then came the sound of a faint click, and a snap.

The group collectively opened their eyes, and looking behind Kokona at the sound of more clicks, the faces of the group as a whole darkened as one.

Their emotions forgotten, they ended the group hug in the face of their common, yet absolute worst, enemy.

The boy laying on his right side behind them prompted this reaction justifiably by pointing his camera up at them in their tender moment of reconcilation, his position being the perfect one for an upskirt panty shot.

Seeing that they were all turning to him however, the boy, infamously known for his perverted nature, started scrambling to get back on his feet, his digital camera clutched in his hands.

Koharu's foot came crashing down on his forehead as he tried to make his getaway one second too late, his skull slamming into the floor.

"Hey Perver." Koharu said in a cold tone. "Care to explain why you're trying to take panty shots of us again?"

"I was taking a picture of something else! I swear!"

The pressure Koharu applied to his forehead increased, her narrowed eyes deepening her scowl, "Why do I smell a load of bull coming out of your mouth?"

Her anger was overtaken by surprise when she heard another click, and she looked down, finding Perver's camera aimed up between her legs.

A moment of silence passed them both as she realized this, and as though taking her silence as an opportunity, Perver clicked his camera a three more times before she whipped her foot backwards, the back of her heel slamming into the side of the camera, shattering the lens upon impact and making it skid across the floor.

Perver's bespectacled eyes widened when he realized what had happened, and he reached his hand out, the surprise within his blue eyes turning into horror as he saw the shattered remains of his camera lens.

"No!" He cried in despair.

Koharu slammed her foot into his face again, twisting her foot slightly so that his eyes were partially covered by the right side of her foot, the left side being on his forehead.

"One of you go see if the headmaster's here. If you can't find him, go get the counselor." She said, in a voice that invited no room for rebuttal.

No rebuttal was possible from her friends however.

Saki made sure to crouch down to pick up the remains of Perver's camera, keeping herself from bending over for fear of Perver's unseen allies being anywhere nearby.

After standing back up with the camera in one hand, her free hand held over the back of her skirt to stop any chance of anyone trying to take a shot, she walked to the nearest trash can, her making sure to take out the memory card before throwing the camera away, her adjusting her hold on the card so that her fingers were grasping each side of it, her bending it so harshly it snapped into two uneven halves.

She threw the destroyed memory card away without a second thought.

As she did all of these things, Yui did as Koharu had said, glaring down at Perver as she went, though he couldn't see this much.

While all of these things transpired, Info-chan watched from the stairwell, arms crossed as she leaned against the wall, her shaking her head disapprovingly at the boy trapped under Koharu's foot.

Due to this appearing normal as a reaction for anyone who knew what was going on, she allowed herself the luxury of doing this.

The one moral problem Info-chan had with showing such disapproval was the fact that she shook her head out of shame for the boy who'd been caught, as compared to someone who felt outright disgust at this.

The boy, Ted Perver, an American who, needless to say, was a student there, had just made several mistakes only genuine amateurs in the panty shot business would make.

To make it worse, he wasn't even running a business of his own yet.

The nerve of him, to try to weedle himself out of becoming her customer.

It made her sick.

She scoffed at the sight of him, walking away without the slightest trace of pity within her being.

As soon as the group left Info-chan's sight, a teacher poked her head out of her classroom door to see what the yell had been about.

At first she seemed to want to question why Koharu was planting her foot on a boy's face, but then she noticed whose face the student did this to.

Realizing it had been Ted Perver who'd found himself in that position, she wordlessly pulled her head back into her classroom, closing the door in front of her, and walked back to her desk, pretending she hadn't seen what she'd just seen out of scorn for the boy's many past attempts at taking an upskirt panty shot of her when she wore a skirt once.

Any punishment a girl gave to him, the teacher would turn a blind eye to, as far as she was concerned.

One could find amazement in what having a common enemy could do to people.

The most immoral people on Earth, their antitheses who sought order, and those many who were in between the two distinctions, all had an almost innate reaction to the their enemy: the creepily perverted teenage boy.

* * *

Kai sat on the roof quietly as he looked up at the sky, the wind blowing the clouds across the sky quickly.

He sighed outwardly, despite many people being there in his immediate vision.

He shouldn't have become so angry, he told himself.

One of the epistles of the Bible put it quite clearly that he shouldn't have done this.

""Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger."" He quoted to himself in a whisper.

He closed his eyes, whispering to himself again, "I'm sorry God. I'll do my best not to do that again."

Opening his eyes, Kai pulled his phone out, eyes narrowed at the screen.

It was about time he and his boss had a heart to heart with him, he thought.

Though he assumed the best of Kokona, there was still the question of why the man had even let himself be seen near a love hotel, when he had a wife already.

Finding the man's number, Kai pressed the call button, eyes finding the skies again as it rang.

* * *

A/N: For anyone wondering, Ted Perver is an OC of mine, though anyone playing Yandere Simulator may have already realized.

The purpose of Ted was to embody the idea for the game I had where you could hire boys to take panty shots for money so they could do your dirty work.

However, as I doubt Yandere Dev would be happy to hear an idea from me (or anyone for that matter), I just put him in this story to showcase that.

That, and it just seemed like such an opportune time to ruin an emotional moment.

The reason why he's American is due to the fact that Theodore, often shortened to "Ted", is a name correlated to the English language, with the US being the closest dominantly English speaking nation to Japan.

Curious about why Ted's name is the way it is?

Just take his name, "Ted Perver", but swap the first and last names. Now consider his elaborated purpose.

That is all.

Of the two people who correctly guessed Mellow Dorama's name pun, they didn't spell it right. Both spelled the pun as "Mellow Drama", when it's really spelled "Melodrama".

Good try though people! :D


	7. The Second Attempt

The day couldn't have gotten any better from what Kokona percieved.

She'd become a Club President, her friends had stopped suspecting her, and she would be getting close to 500,000 yen by the day's end.

Knowing all of these things, Kokona had a distinctly happy expression on her face as she sat in her classroom, worries all but existent as she found herself able to pay attention in class again.

When classes would inevitably end, Kokona would go to her club room, her feeling as though she were walking on air as she went.

In those moments, Kokona's mind shifted, as though going back in time, back to when her mother was still alive.

Those had been her most joyful days, Kokona thought, only comparable to her childhood, even if she hadn't realized it.

But then, that was typically the joy people found in their nostalgia for youthful times: The innocence of not knowing what the world was like, and not thinking you'd have to worry about it.

Perhaps that had been why Kokona had felt so desperate (was desperate the right word? She wasn't sure) to keep her social circle going on for as long as possible.

For Kokona, it was perhaps the only fragment of her old life that still existed.

Her longing for her past life, without extraneous worry, without her still grieving father, and without the need to keep a mask on her face to hide the former and the results of the latter.

As she thought about her old life, Kokona couldn't help noticing that something was off.

It took her a few more halls of walking before she eventually realized what it was.

In the morning, when she'd been walking to school, she could pass it off as nervousness getting the better of her perspective, but now it was unmistakable.

People were looking at her differently now.

Most of the time, Kokona wouldn't be any more a cause to turn heads than anyone else, unless said heads were those of freshmen who saw her hair and hadn't gone through the process of letting the novelty of her hairstyle fade to nothing.

The looks people gave her weren't of the surprised curiosity that Kokona had grown so used to them giving her however.

Despite this knowledge, she couldn't place the emotion behind most of the looks, the ones giving these looks doing nothing to help by turning their heads away from her when they noticed her noticing them.

It took a fair deal of time before Kokona was certain the looks she was getting weren't just her imagination, but when she finally was certain, an emotion festered within her, it being a mixture of uncertainty and nervousness.

She felt the former for it being unknown to her whether the looks were inspired by the Fakebook post from the night before or, Kokona silently hoped, the sight of her armband of club leadership.

She felt the latter emotion because she feared it was more due to the post than her armband.

Kokona knew it well within herself that she'd never be certain, as giving verbal attention to it would most likely make it worse.

What if it was because of both things? Kokona wondered, the nervousness slowly overriding her uncertainty, festering itself into fear.

Her mind had gradually changed back to normal, at a pace so slow she barely realized it, but now it was thoroughly obvious to her that her happy state was gone for the time being.

It was a shame really, Kokona thought with a mental pout, it had been so wonderful while it lasted.

"Senpai?" Kokona looked up at the boy's voice, her being surprised to find her kohai there.

"Kohai?" Kokona asked, tilting her head slightly before she could stop herself.

He smiled awkwardly to her, "Hey there."

Kokona righted her head, seeing his discomfort.

"What's wrong?" She asked without thinking.

He looked away slightly, him almost looking towards the floor but righting his gaze with a jerk of his head upwards.

"I guess I'm feeling a bit guilty is all."

"What? Why?"

"Did your friends tell you anything that I said?" He seemed to want to look at her, but his eyes remained diverted.

"No." Kokona thought back to her lunch break. "They only apologized and... We talked."

He suddenly found it within himself to look at her curiously at the tremor of disgust her body went through as she paused.

For the first time that week, her feeling disgust well up within her hadn't been due to a memory of the less than commendable things she'd done for money the past couple of days (the tremor of disgust grew ever stronger at the thought), but was instead due to the memory of Ted Perver taking panty shots of her and all of her friends.

The reaction of the counselor upon arriving at the scene of sexual harassment was to be expected.

Despite Koharu still keeping her foot planted firmly in Perver's face, the counselor got a decent grasp of the situation without anyone explaining it to her.

The recognition of Perver's face had been enough.

With light seeming to cross into her lenses at the sight of the boy, she would look up at the girl who'd brought her there.

"Why didn't you tell me it was him?" She asked, her expression and tone even more serious than was usual for her.

"What?" Yui asked, red eyebrows raising themselves in confusion at how upset the woman in front of her looked.

"If I'd known this was who I'd be dealing with, I would've put on some shorts." She looked back down at Perver, the lenses she wore being lit up from the retracted light of the classroom next to her as she stared down at his covered face.

Perver would be suspended from school for his repeated perverted behavior a few minutes afterwards.

Even with the knowledge of Perver's suspension, Kokona couldn't help feeling an irate disgust towards him for doing that.

At the sound of her kohai's voice however, Kokona would look back up at him, the memory fading from her thoughts, "Did something happen senpai?" Kai asked, his expression a mixture of what she thought was worry and curiosity.

Kokona thought to it again, but shook her head after a moment, "Nothing worth talking about."

Her voice, toneless in its sound, probably gave him reason to be skeptic, but anything he might've wanted to say went unsaid.

"Okay." He murmured simply, a hand on his hip. "Anyways, could I ask you something?"

Kokona nodded, "Go ahead."

"Do you remember that guy in the picture from that post from yesterday?"

At the mention of the post, a bitter taste tinged Kokona's mouth.

"Yes, I remember him. Why?"

"Did you want to stop working with him?"

"Huh?" She felt herself be filled with confusion at his words.

He looked away nervously, crossing his arms, "It's just... I know him personally. If he's bothering you then I..."

As he trailed off, Kokona looked at him curiously, "How do you know him?"

"He's the person in charge of the company publishing my manga." He answered after a moment of contemplation.

"He isn't making a manga himself?" Kokona asked without thinking.

She had taken his words at face value from it matching well with what he'd told her up that point, as well as what her friends had said about him earlier that day.

He seemed to ponder why she believed him so easily, but said nothing of it, simply answering, "No, he is making a manga. He's just my boss is all. Nothing should keep him from making his own manga if he wants to."

"I see."

She said this, her not sure what emotion her voice had when she did.

"Would you like to stop helping him, if what he's doing is making things hard on you?" He asked, voice cautious once more.

"How can you be sure that it IS making things hard for me?" Her voice was once more light with mere curiosity.

He looked away from her again before answering.

"I talked to him myself."

Kokona blinked in surprise.

"You...?" Though she trailed off, Kokona's voice was laced with disbelief.

"I did." He spoke firmly, but then his voice suddenly became more hushed, "I wanted to know why he took you into a hotel. Even for a romance manga he shouldn't have gone to the one he took you to."

"Well..." Kokona couldn't help somewhat agreeing with his words, despite her full response, "Yes, but who knows. It might've been necessary for the manga. He said he didn't know how to draw well without reference pictures."

Granted, Kokona thought, he shouldn't have pressured her to go as far as he had two days ago.

"It shouldn't be necessary." He shook his head at her words. "A married man shouldn't be going to a place like that at all unless he's with his wife."

Kokona's eyes widened at this.

"He's married?" She couldn't control the gasp from coming out of her throat.

"Yes," he closed his eyes, "His wife's been pretty worried about where he's been going recently. At least that's what my roommate's told me she said for the past few weeks. So I don't want that blame going on to you"

"Are you close to his wife?"

"Not really." His eyes remained closed as he said this, him breathing a sigh. "My boss and I worked closely with each other for a little while, so I visited his house sometimes. Since my roommate doesn't usually have anything better to do with her time, she and my boss' wife became pretty close since she usually came with me. I'd rather his marriage not get messed up because of something like this, so I'm not just asking for your sake."

Kokona's body felt hollow as she heard these words, her eyes going down to the floor, widened in shock.

He'd been married?

Why would he have her do the things she did with him then?

She held her head, feeling somewhat lightheaded.

"Senpai?" He asked worriedly upon seeing how dizzy she seemed. "Are you all right?"

"I'll... I'll be fine..." She said this unconvincingly, and they both knew it.

"Are you sure?" He asked, him even more worried now.

"I am. I'm just feeling tired."

Why was her voice growing more hysterical with every passing second?

"Did you get enough rest?" Skepticism tinged his voice, but he asked anyways.

"Maybe not. I'll just go to my club. I'll see you later."

She walked forward, holding her head all the while, her eyes wide as she walked forward.

"Wait, senpai," Kai reached forward, grasping her shoulder, "Do you really need to go to your club today? You..." He stopped himself from saying what he wanted to say, replacing the adjective with something just as fitting, "You look tired right now."

"I... I'm fine." She said, her looking behind herself at him.

Seeing the strong signs of her expression and voice that this wasn't true, Kai said what he wanted to ask with more bluntness, "But you look scared. What's wrong?"

Kokona looked down again.

"I'd feel bad, if him being out late is causing trouble for his marriage." She spoke this as a half-truth.

She indeed felt guilt washing over her, but it wasn't due to the man being out late due to her.

It was guilt over the fact that she'd fornicated with a married man, the realization of this making the guilt well up within her, intermingling itself with anger and self-disgust for her past actions.

Why did things have to be this way?

Why did that man have to pick her, of all people, to be his manga model?

If she'd known that these kind of consequences would come as a result of this, she never would've said yes to meeting that man in Shisuta town.

She would've barricaded herself in her room in fact, to bar any chance of seeing him again.

Her inner turmoil was as clear as day to the boy in front of her, and he spoke gently to her.

"Hey, senpai."

She looked up at him, her eyes watery with tears.

"It's okay. You didn't know."

"But that doesn't matter." Kokona said, knowing he couldn't possibly understand what she was going through but speaking anyways, "It doesn't change the fact that this happened because of me."

She should've fought harder to not let anything unspeakable happen at that hotel.

If she had done that...

No, she interjected herself, there was more to it than that.

She should've looked harder for a better job.

If she just did that then she wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.

But then, she remembered, what use would there be in trying to find a job at that time?

No matter where she looked, she couldn't find work anywhere, and soon it looked as though her only choice had been to start compensated dating.

If she hadn't started doing that, there wasn't any doubt in her mind that she'd be homeless, no ifs, ands or buts about it.

But, even considering that, she wondered if homelessness wasn't better than the situation she was in then.

She closed her eyes.

"I have to be by myself for a bit." She said softly, and hearing this, her kohai put his hand off of her shoulder with a strong hesitance.

"Okay." Kai said whilst looking at Kokona sadly, "I hope you feel better soon senpai."

She reached up and grasped her left arm, opening her eyes slightly, "I hope so too."

She then turned, walking away quickly, and once she was out of sight, Kai sighed softly.

It was obvious to him that there was something else that was the matter instead of just manga photography.

But he couldn't press her too strongly for details.

In this situation, it would probably be best to wait for her to give them to him herself, if she so chose to do that.

Sighing softly to himself, Kai made a decision for what he'd do, walking forward as he headed towards his club.

* * *

Ayano walked slowly through her school, tiredness seeping through her bones.

Upon her reaching the second floor, her phone vibrated.

 **Hey, are you alright? You look pretty tired.**

 _I just spent most of the day looking for a bra._

 **A bra? Why?**

 _It was Saki Miyu's. Somehow she lost track of where it was, so I helped her._

 **Since when do you go around helping people look for their underwear?**

 _After I met you, I never so much as thought of anyone's underwear other than my own. The only reason I spent my day looking for Miyu's was because I wanted to get closer to her. I thought she could give me something to use against Haruka._

 **I suppose that makes sense.**  
 **Where did you find it though, out of curiosity?**

 _Under that old Sakura tree._

A few moments of silence came before Info-chan responded.

 **The one people confess their love to others under?**

 _Is there any other Sakura tree on campus?_

 **I'm sorry.**

 _For what?_

 **I'm just laughing harder than I thought I would about the implications of that.**  
 **You REALLY found her bra under that tree?**

 _Yes._

A few moments passed by again, and Ayano could almost imagine Info-chan's laughter.

 **This is the greatest info ever. I FINALLY got some dirt on Miyu.**

 _I almost want to feel happy for you._

 **Shame.**  
 **I'm guessing you're tired from running around all day.**

 _Yes._

 **Alright. Since you've supplied me with very strong rumor material, I'll cut you a discount for info.**

 _Should I be happy or sad about that?_

 **Considering it could help seal your Rival's fate so she won't steal your beloved Senpai away, probably happy.**

 _That's implying everything I've done today was for nothing._

 **No it isn't.**  
 **This is something to help you. If it fails to do that, then Miyu can be your back-up plan.**

 _Fine. Tell me._

 **Haruka is very likely going to help rehearse a play today in the gym during club time.**

 _That's it?_

 **Yes. Make of that what you will. The only other thing I'm willing to say is that she's playing the part of a witch.**

 _I see._

Ayano walked towards the bathroom as she sent this reply.

She wasn't very sure what to make of it at first, even she spotted a fire extinguisher near the end of the hall.

After stopping to glance at it for a moment, Ayano went inside the bathroom to do her business, pondering what to do with the information she now had.

* * *

The time since Kokona went to, as she worded it, have time to herself was spent in the third year students' girl's bathroom.

For the majority of her time there, Kokona simply let all of her pent up tears free, allowing herself the freedom of expressing her emotional strife within the boundaries of her bathroom stall.

Kokona only left when she needed to go to make it in time to start club activities, but after allowing herself the time to cry in private, she felt several times better than she did beforehand.

She only reached her club door a few minutes before it would be the earliest time to start activities, but she managed a smile, her once teary eyed and damp face wiped dry before she opened the sliding door.

Seeing the many people inside conversing with one another, Kokona remembered one of the things the few dissentors to her being the club president said, and drew breath so her voice could carry through the room.

"Hey everyone, you guys ready to start yet?" She said loudly, everyone turning and seeming happy, if a bit surprised, at the entrance of their president, enthusiasm and all.

"We're not sure if we can start yet." Dorama's voice replied first.

"Why's that?" Kokona asked, a quirk to her eyebrow.

"Not everyone's here yet." A girl's voice spoke, Kokona looking at Aka Tauress.

"How many are left?"

"Just a couple more." Another voice chipped in.

"Alright. We still have a half hour before we need to start, so we'll wait for now. Can anyone contact them for me so we'll know though?"

At the raising of hands by those who could, Kokona felt a surge of pride that came with her new authority.

Despite this, she called on the names of those she wanted to check on the others and smiled as they went about following her order, Kokona turning around and closing the clubroom door behind herself.

Upon turning around, she found that Dorama had been standing behind her.

"Are you okay?" Kokona asked in a tone not unlike a mother.

"Yes. It's just that there's someone here who isn't in the club right now." He turned to look behind himself, at a boy standing near the window of the room. "He said he isn't interested in joining, but wanted to watch the club activities. Could he stay?"

The person in question made Kokona's eyes widen slightly in surprise.

He had turned to look at her, and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he noticed her looking at him.

"Yes, he can stay." Kokona said, her subdued surprise making her voice sound almost wispy.

"Very well." Dorama walked away then, and Kokona walked to the person who came there.

"Hey." She said awkwardly, her eyes asking the question she wanted to give him.

"Hey." Kai smiled at her in his usual awkward manner, him answering the question her eyes gave. "I'm here because you seemed pretty upset. So I came to give you support."

"That's nice of you, but don't you have your own club to go to?"

"I do. But I can't very well focus on that when you're feeling down. It just doesn't feel right." He shrugged at her words.

Besides, he added mentally, the biggest reason he even joined the Occult Club to begin with was because of the off chance it probably had of helping him help her.

"Are you sure? Wouldn't that give off a bad impression to everyone in the Occult Club?"

He shook his head, "Don't worry. I already talked to the club leader, or at least its stand-in. He said it'd be fine if I didn't come to club activities so long as I come to them at least once a week. So here I am."

"I don't need any support though. You don't need to be here on my account." Kokona insisted.

"Then I'll be here on my account." Kai smiled still, but crossed his arms. "There's no harm in me spectating, is there?"

"I guess not."

"Well, unless my being here will be a distraction for you." Kai said, looking at the Drama Club members present, a couple more members walking inside.

Kokona shook her head, "No, it shouldn't be."

"Alright." When he saw that a third person walked in, he looked at her. "It looks like the club is all here."

When Kokona turned to see if this was the truth, she spoke quietly, "Yes, they're all here."

"Will you be starting activities then?"

She glanced at him, nodding softly, before turning to everyone present.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's get started on our next play."

* * *

 _Were you able to get everything ready?_

Ayano asked this to Info-chan while gazing at the group of people who walked out of the school, them going around the track and towards the gym.

 **Yes, I was able to. They're in the backstage area right now. I left the door open for you.**

 _Thank you._

 **Thank you for your wonderful purchase via panty shot donations.**

As she walked towards into the school whilst pretending to mind the runners running around the track at that moment, she gave a simply reply.

 _Please stop calling them that._

 **I call a spade a spade and a panty shot donation a panty shot donation.**

She decided not to respond to that.

She only walked to the Drama Clubroom, entering it and finding many masks on the wall.

* * *

Kai found a strong interest in the play's plot from what he could see of it.

From what he could see of it, the play was meant to be a tragedy centered around an alleged witch who'd caused a famine in a small village.

The witch, however, was truthfully innocent of all the allegations given to her.

The paranoia of the religiously devoted villagers didn't give them the ability to easily believe her however.

For Kai, he may have liked the plot of it due to its historical accuracy.

The concept of witches had been birthed with Christians of the Protestant and Roman Catholic branches after all, though it didn't seem the play focused on that.

As a direct result of the tensions that would arise within the people of differing faiths in the same God, when times of famine or severely declining fertility would befall communities, the people of said communities would often point fingers at each other, saying that God was punishing them for their unrighteous method of practicing their faith.

As a means of stopping the conflict, people would fabricate the concept of witches as scapegoats for the community's problems.

If only witches were real, Kai thought sadly.

Thousands had died because of a community's religious tensions, and the only reason they were alleged witches was because no one could defend their innocence on the matter except for themselves.

It was such a tragic thing really.

To be scapegoated as the source of a community's problems just for being without friends or family.

Such a way of dying was horrible.

What he found most horrible about the ensuing practice of witch hunts during that time had been that Kai could find it within himself to blame the community for their own problems.

The hunters would profess their faith and the alleged witch's acts of sin as justifications for hanging them or burning them alive, when they themselves failed to follow their own holy doctrine.

A large majority of the accused witches were widows or those of old age, low wealth, or those who simply hadn't married.

In the cases of those of poor wealth, Kai could only wonder if their being persecuted as alleged witches would count against the persecutors as the sin of partiality.

One wasn't supposed to treat someone of great wealth any better or worse than someone of menial wealth.

In a similar vein, the apostle Paul and even Christ himself said that it was perhaps better for a person not to get married.

What could persecuting a person called to be a witch for not being married mean for their words then?

And finally, Kai thought, the worst case of witch hunts had been the cases of widows being persecuted.

The Bible itself said that pure and perfect religion involved visiting and caring for orphans and widows.

Yet what had the witch hunts caused for the latter?

Kai rhetorically questioned himself with the above with a note of bitternes in his thoughts.

Were the people who caused the witch hunts any less horrible than the image of innocent people they were pointing fingers towards?

As the final scene of the play's rehearsal started, Kai felt himself feel bad for Kokona, who played the character of the alleged witch, her tied loosely onto a stake.

Like a witch, he thought, she had been accused of dishonorable things, and no one had said anything to refute it.

She didn't deserve that sort of treatment, Kai thought sadly.

She stood alone on the stage, her head hung low, as the people of her club stood around the stage, trying to simulate a chant of her burning, and Kokona slowly sank down to her knees, eyes closed.

But then he noticed something strange.

A person wearing a mask suddenly appeared on the stage, carrying a bottle of a see-through liquid and an even smaller box.

The person, whose mask came as close to the stereotypical devil as was probably possible, walked slowly behind Kokona, getting the ropes loosely binding her into her hands before quickly tightening them harshly.

Kokona's eyes snapped open at this, her turning to look behind herself and saying loudly, "Hey, what are you doing?"

The chanting abruptly stopped at her words, the Drama Club looking surprised at this.

They had thought the devil-masked person was something done by their president, and tried egging the person on, mostly out of curiosity for what their president apparently planned.

Though there were some dissentors to this, they decided to go along with it after a moment.

Now the only thing there was was silence as the masked person opened the bottle, swinging it towards the floor and letting the liquid splash onto the wooden floorboards.

Kokona tried standing up, but the ropes held tight, and she was stuck in a crouched position, the would-be stake too heavy for her to move on her own.

"Alright, this has gone long enough," she tried sounding calm, but failed to as she looked at the girl next to her, "You can let me go now."

The girl provided no reply, only throwing more of the liquid down at her legs before dumping the rest of it around her feet.

The club members were stunned out of their silence when the girl pulled a match out of the smaller box, placing the reddened end against the ignition side.

There was a collective gasp as they realized what she was doing, but they sprang into action when she flicked the match across the ignition, a small flame appearing.

What followed seemed to happen in slow motion.

Many voices screamed an incomprehensible wail for her not to do it.

Several feet thundered as their owners clamored to get onto the stage.

Kokona gave a fearful look at the girl before her that wore the devil mask, the fear brought on by the realization that her legs and the immediate perimeter of her feet were covered in ethanol gasoline robbing her of her voice, forcing her to mouth her next words.

"Please, don't."

Ayano gave no response to all of these things.

She only dropped the lit match into the layer of liquid, the see-through gasoline lighting on fire in an instant.


	8. Persona

As the gasoline was ignited, a scream started in Kokona's throat.

Ayano turned to the approaching boys and girls coming towards her as they climbed onto the stage, and though some became preoccupied with trying to help Kokona, whose legs had just caught on fire, others came towards her.

Having expected this, Ayano had thrown the match and bottle into the flames and pulled the knife out of her pocket with quick succession.

The first to come upon her, a boy with dark hair, was moving to tackle her, but couldn't stop in time before she slashed up at his neck with the knife with deadly precision, blood spraying up from his new wound.

Mellow Dorama's eyes would widen in the now bloody face of the devil as Ayano reached up with her free hand to grasp his shirt, throwing him into the fire with almost inhuman strength.

The ones who were aiming to tackle her instead focused their attention on Dorama, their eyes wide.

Ayano took this opportunity to turn around, sprinting towards the exit, looking back to make sure she had no pursuers, her having none.

Kai looked around, eyes widened greatly as Kokona's screams filled his ears.

He ran around to look behind the large stake, him trying and failing to will himself to remain calm, him seeing Kokona's bound hands struggling desperately with the ropes.

He looked down at the floor, seeing that flames had encircled the floor around and under the metal stake.

The flames reached for a near full meter radius, and the wood was burning along with it.

He wouldn't be able to reach the ropes without getting caught in flames.

When he heard Kokona's screams reach a new height, he scowled and breathed a curse under his breath.

Then he closed his eyes quickly, muttering to himself in his native tongue hurriedly, _"I am theirs, I am theirs, I am theirs."_

The memory correlated to these words made his body stiffen, each successive repitition causing his mind to clear, his eyes opening slowly on the third time, eyes and voice now calm.

Without a second thought, he fell down on one knee, rolling his uniform pants up each leg hurriedly, him standing back up and running forward without a second thought.

The second his foot sank into the flames, Kai winced, his expression an understatement of the pain he felt, and he muttered again, _"I am theirs."_

His acknowledgement of the pain ceased instantly with this, and he kept moving, reaching behind the stake and moving his hands to the tightened knot.

As the flames reached his skin, Kai muttered the same incantation repeatedly to himself, his hands loosening the ropes around Kokona's wrists.

Upon pulling her hands out of the binds, Kai, still muttering the same three words, allowed his hands to whip themselves forward, taking a tight grasp of Kokona's arm as his muscles tensed.

 _"I am theirs,"_ Kai forcibly changed his footing against the flames, his shoes melting and sticking to the metal floor beneath the wood, to make his right foot reach out to the right side of the stake, him not paying any attention to the pain he felt as the flames ate at his feet, _"I am theirs,"_ doing his best not to choke on the fumes of the flames as he muttered this again, _"I - am - THEIRS!"_

With grunt and all of his strength, Kai threw Kokona into the air, her giving a surprised cry at this but landing just half a foot away from the flames in a sprawled manner.

Kai then crouched down ever so slightly, doing his best leap in an attempt to jump out of the flames, him sailing over it and landed flat on his now bare feet from the bottom, the flames having melted through his shoes and burning into his socks.

His feet landed right outside the very edge of the flames, his calm demeanor falling as he threatened to do the same in a backwards motion at the unbalance of his feet.

His arms flailed around as he tried to regain his balance, and it was at this moment that Kai registered the burns he had on his feet, ankles, and lower legs.

Amidst this pain, Kai forced himself to regain his balance and move forward, him falling down next to Kokona, him coughing up the toxins he'd breathed in moments ago as he did this.

Before he had the chance to try standing back up, a pair of hands grasped at his arms, immediately starting to drag him, and Kai opened his eyes, seeing that Kokona was being dragged in a similar way.

Finding relief to flood within him at her being, with a stretched meaning of the word considering the burns on her legs, okay, Kai smiled lightly before he closed his eyes again.

* * *

Running away from the building, Ayano looked behind herself with her bloody mask and knife, once again trying to see if anyone was following her.

When she discerned that no one was doing this, she looked around herself to see if anyone could see her.

The students at the track were more heavily preoccupied with their activities, but some took notice of the smoke that started billowing the gymnasium.

Ayano hid herself behind the back corner of the maze, looking at the sight of there being people running towards the gymnasium at the realization of it being on fire, some talking into their phones as they went.

They must've been calling for firefighters, Ayano thought.

Despite this thought, she smiled darkly at the sight of the burning gymnasium.

Even if Kokona managed to get loose, the fumes of the fires would more than likely get the job done.

That was one more rival for Senpai's love out of the way.

At the thought of this, Ayano realized she felt an emotion she imagined was joy.

She was one step closer to making sure Senpai would be hers.

Behind her mask, she imagined she looked as cheerful as the stereotypical little girl frolicking through a flower field on a bright, sunny day.

This was until she saw something that made her face fall.

Out of the exit she'd used to flee from any potential pursuers came said potential pursuers, some of which dragging the bodies of two people.

One was a boy of Middle-Eastern descent, and the other was Kokona, seeming to have a few burns on her legs but being relatively unscathed otherwise.

For a moment, Ayano froze at this, unable to comprehend what she saw.

She could only stare dumbly as Kokona was dragged a moderate distance away from the smoking building.

Then, like an alarm clock waking someone up in the morning, her phone vibrating snapped her out of her distracted state.

Pulling out her phone and glancing down at it, Ayano read the preview message on her phone's locked screen, it simply having two words.

 **You're insane.**

Needless to say, a certain info broker had texted these words to her.

Whether she'd seen the smoking building and made the obvious connection, Ayano would never know.

Ayano simply tore the devil mask off of her face, the chord holding it there snapping when she did this, her pupils and irises being the same gray color instead of being black for the former and a greyish silver color for the latter, the mask she held in her hand trembling violently.

" _How are you still alive?!_ " She said through grit teeth, the mask threatening to crack under the pressure Ayano put it under.

Of course, from the large distance between them, there was no way for Kokona to hear her, much less answer her.

She closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in and out when she realized she felt such incredible rage and disbelief at her rival surviving, doing this in an unsuccessful attempt to calm herself down.

What did she have to do to make sure Kokona died? She wondered to herself.

As she glanced at the burning building again, she turned, running around the maze and going towards the shower area in the hopes of cleaning herself of the blood she had on her, as well getting rid of all the potential evidence that could be used against her.

If it turned out that her idea of throwing the ethanol bottle and matches into the fire hadn't been as effective a means of getting rid of the evidence, then it would've been a good thing that she'd decided to wear gloves beforehand.

* * *

From her clubroom window, Info-chan stared at the gymnasium, it being on fire at this point, the fire seeming to the windows of the building.

Seeing this, she could only sigh, knowing the reason for it could only be traced to one person, who she had a strong feeling was the person who was the first to run out of the gym.

While she considered herself, if nothing else, an honest businesswoman, she thought that Yan-chan wouldn't be foolhardy enough to actually set the building on fire.

With her mild surprise causing this, she only gave a simple text to her client.

 **You're insane.**

After sending this, she watched a new group of people piling out of the gym from the same exit Ayano must've used, and for a moment wondered if everyone was able to get out of the gym.

If so, she thought that would've been a rather boring way for it to happen.

Though, she reasoned, Kokona Haruka was Ayano's current target.

As the people who escaped pulled two bodies on the ground several feet away from the gymnasium, Info-chan watched curiously as a teacher sprinted out of the school and towards the group, raising an eyebrow curiously at this.

"I guess after she pushed Kokona off the roof, Yan-chan stopped caring about subtlety." Info-chan mused to herself quietly.

A minute later, a text came through, the red-head looking at it with a dull curiosity in her expression.

 _Not insane enough apparently._

 **Why do you say that?**

For a few minutes, Ayano didn't reply.

When she finally did, Info-chan sighed softly to herself.

 _Haruka is still alive._

 **How exactly did you go about setting the gym on fire?**

 _I didn't set the gym on fire. I just set her on fire._

 **Why are there columns of smoke coming out of there then?**

 _Since the floor's made of a lot of wood, shouldn't it be natural for it to spread?_

The image of the fire spreading to the curtains of the stage filled Info-chan's mind.

 **Fair enough.  
You said you set her on fire though?**

 _Yes. And she's somehow still alive right now._

Info-chan looked at the burning building again, the smoke seeming to thicken the more time passed, eyes widened slightly.

 **How did she survive?**

 _Your guess is as good as mine's._

She felt a bit of offense at this.

 **Is that an insult of my information gathering skills?**

 _Even YOU'RE not that good, so no._

She paused for a moment at this, remembering that less than ten minutes ago, nothing was at all out of the ordinary about the gymnasium.

 **Touché.**

 _She might be something out of a shounen manga like you said. I don't understand how else she could survive something like that._

 **What did you do to her exactly?**

 _I more or less tied her up and threw all the ethanol around her and on her legs before setting it all on fire._

 **More or less?**

 _She was tied up for the burning-at-the-stake part of her witch act. All I did was tighten the ropes so she couldn't get out easily._

Info-chan gave a quizzical look at the phone.

 **How did she survive then?**

 _Like I said, your guess is as good as mine. I doubted it at first, but now I think she really COULD be something out of a shounen manga._

 **Well that's not good. With how often shounen character become gods then even someone like a real life Yuno Gasai wouldn't be enough to kill her.**

 _Oh ha ha._

As Info-chan watched a handful of other teachers come out of the school, the collective group who assumed to be the Drama Club picked the two people up and carried them away.

Surmising where they must've been taking them, the girl rose from her seat, hot from her sitting there for most of the day, and walked away from there, intent on getting the information she wanted to seek out.

* * *

When Kai's pain from undergoing a mixture of dragging and carrying to the Nurse's office would lessen to any extent, it would only be when he was laid down on the bed, him finally able to not feel any pain from there being a person touching his burnt lower legs and feet.

Kokona was laid next to him, to his left, on a similar bed, her eyes shut tightly as she was laid down.

He turned his head over to her, her pained face making his own wince slightly in worry.

Though he knew the answer, his question came out before he could think it through, "Are you okay senpai?"

"No." She replied automatically, her doing nothing to hide the pain she felt, the nurse walking the distance there was between the beds, a small crowd that consisted of teachers and Drama Club members standing behind her.

"Can you tell me what happened in there?" She asked, eyes tense in concern as she looked between them over and over.

"We were rehearsing a play," someone said from the club, "But when we were doing the last scene..."

The person, a male, choked on his own words, him clenching his fists as he looked down at the floor.

"And what?" The nurse turned to look back at him.

Seeing his lowered head, as well as the dark expressions on everyone's, sans the teachers, faces, she held her hips and sighed.

"We're not mind readers." A teacher said, crossing her arms. "We can't help you unless you tell us."

Kai winced, pulling himself up forcibly, "Well..."

The looks of everyone in the room came to turn to him, and he tried speaking as slowly as possible so that they'd understand clearly through his accent, forcing himself to talk before everyone present.

"Like he said," Kai looked to the boy who spoke before, "They were practicing their play when someone came in and tried..." He stopped, correcting himself after reminding himself of his and Kokona's burns, "No, they set Kokona-senpai on fire."

He felt the club president looking over at him as well, but he forced himself not to return the look.

"Who was it?" The teacher asked earnestly.

"I don't know." He replied honestly. "They were wearing a devil mask when they did it."

Kai glanced over at the burns on Kokona's legs, eyes wincing again.

"Were you on stage with her?" The nurse asked him, seeing his wince and mistaking it to be for pain he felt.

He shook his head immediately, "Not when the fire started, no."

"How did you get burned then?"

He looked down slightly, "I had to get her out of the fire, but I needed to get to her to do that."

To his left, his senpai's eyes slowly widened in realization, but he kept his eyes cast downward.

"So I had to step into the fire to do that." He said this more quickly than he imagined he would as he admitted this fact.

The people who weren't present in the gym seemed to mirror Kokona's surprise.

"Oh." The nurse said in a taken aback tone. "That was... very brave of you."

His gaze lowered to an even greater degree, him looking down in what appeared to be shame.

"Don't say that. That's what I was supposed to do." He said this in a firm, albeit quiet, tone, looking towards Kokona again with a glance.

She stared at him for a moment, eyes widened still.

Why would he have done that? She thought to herself.

For a moment, she continued to marvel at him.

Then his words from the day before echoed in Kokona's mind.

 _"Since I want to follow his commandments,"_ he'd said with a somewhat sheepish expression, referring to Christ, _"I want to do what I can to help my friend."_

Her eyes tensed slightly, then she looked down, feeling both touched and guilty at the same time.

"Thank you." She found herself saying this to him without thinking.

He flushed slightly at her words, but nodded nonetheless, "It's no problem."

"Are you... sure you were supposed to do that?" One teacher said with obvious hesitance, looking down at the burns he had on his legs. "What would your parents say if they saw you went this far for someone else?"

Kai's expression darkened even more than everyone else's expressions combined at the teacher's question.

"I... I guess they'd probably say that I shouldn't have done that..." He seemed to stammer for his words as he spoke.

"Don't get me wrong, what you did was commendable. But you shouldn't do something like that with that sort of mindset. You need to account for your safety as well before helping others."

His expression transitioned somewhat into skepticism, but he spoke in a monotone, "I suppose."

She seemed taken aback at his look, but said nothing of it as he slowly gazed back up at her, "But since everyone came out pretty much okay, everything should be fine."

His borderline optimistic tone died out as he saw the looks of the other students in the room adopted at his question.

"Right?" He added uncertainly.

"No." One person said, dropping their head. "There was someone who didn't make it out okay."

"Who?" Kai looked around the room, as did Kokona.

When Kokona realized who they meant, her eyes widened.

"Dorama?" She gasped, not wanting to believe the implication when she realized he was the only one not present.

"Yes. The person with the mask on their face..." The person who spoke didn't seem to want to do this, choking on her words but doing so anyways, "She killed him. She threw him into the fire when he tried to get to her."

As though the room acknowledged this, it became deathly silent.

Kai seemed to enter a state of shock, his eyes wide as the truth of the matter sunk itself in.

"Oh." His voice sounded hollow, and he looked down at his burnt feet.

For a moment, not a sound could be heard in the room, the most being the results of the looks of surprise the teachers and the nurse shared as they looked at each other and to the students in their wake, sound only caused by the friction of their feet as they looked around in this manner.

Then a faint whispering could be heard, some of those present looking over to Kai as he held his head low still, whispering with closed eyes.

When he stopped whispering after a moment, he opened his eyes, filled with a melancholy acknowledgement of what had happened.

"I'm sorry." He said when he saw the looks some gave him, his voice a hollow monotone still. "I was just saying a small prayer for the one who didn't get out."

He looked down again, closing his eyes.

He wasn't sure much could be done for him, but he still prayed for the dead person nonetheless.

It was the only hope he had of not knowing for a fact that that poor soul was going to anywhere but hell.

It wasn't as though he was very significant in matters of his religion after all.

He was just another human, just as rotten as any other, he thought sadly.

He could only hope his God would hear his plea to allow that person into heaven.

* * *

In time, the remaining members of the Drama Club would leave with the arrival of policemen.

Though the nurse wanted to, she very quickly told Kokona and her kohai that she couldn't let the police in to question them.

"Why not?" Kokona asked immediately.

She crossed her arms tersely, "It's a an order from the Headmaster. I don't have many details as to why he doesn't want you to be questioned, but that's the reason why."

Kokona gave a look that conveyed strong confusion, "But... That doesn't make any sense!"

The nurse gave a tired look to the club president, as though she expected this reaction.

"I understand how you feel, but I can't let you speak to them."

"Why not?" Kai asked, his voice even, but his eyes a bit wide in disbelief. "We need a better answer than because the Headmaster said so. We have as much a right to talk to them as they need to talk to us."

The nurse sighed at their words.

For a moment, she seemed to hesitate as she looked between the two of them, then visibly seem to come to a decision as she turned around, checking that the doors were closed.

When she saw that they were indeed closed, she turned to look at them again, "Okay. You two deserve to know the truth more than anyone else at this point."

She drew a deep breath, then began to speak, "I don't know the specifics of what happened, but a few decades ago, a student was accused of stalking and murdering a large number of her classmates. Her accuser was a journalist, who, from what the older staff said, was trying to further his own career by accusing her of that. He decided to involve the police when he thought he had enough evidence to prove her guilt, but when he took her to court, it became obvious to everyone that what he accused that student of wasn't true. So after they aquitted her, the police were pretty badly embarassed, and the Headmaster, at that time, decided that they wouldn't be allowed to stay on school property for too long. They agreed to those terms, probably since they became pretty big laughing stocks throughout Japan from that court case. The Headmaster said the school'd be at risk for very bad publicity for that, so he's decided not to let problems like this get turned over to the police, if it can be helped."

"That's suspicious no matter how you look at it." He crossed his arms. "So basically, because he doesn't want this school to get a bad reputation, he's not going to let us talk to the police?"

"Yes." The nurse cupped her hands, bracing herself for the worst.

Don't kill the messenger, she mentally said to them, though she knew they were no psychics.

"But that makes no sense," thankfully, it seemed her hopes had been answered in full, as the male in the room spoke relatively calmly, though with a hint of outrage, "If I remember right, the gym was already on fire, so that makes for bad reputation anyways. Why not let us talk to them too, if that's the case?"

She stifled the impulse to let a sigh come out of her mouth again.

"I imagine everyone else who's involved already is being questioned right now," she said calmly, "Is there anything you can say that they probably haven't said yet?"

Kai blinked, then looked down in thought, speaking after a moment, "No. All I can say was that it was a girl with a devil mask on. I don't remember much else from then."

His senpai nodded in affirmation, as though she was confirming that this was the truth.

"Then there's no point in letting the police talk to you. You'd probably be only wasting precious seconds of time they have to look for evidence that could lead them to whoever did this to you." She looked at them both carefully. "I know it can be frustrating, but there's not much else you can do but wait."

The boy's expression did nothing to prove her claim of knowledge wrong, for he indeed looked frustrated, but he, nor Kokona, gave any reply to what she just said.

The nurse only asked the next thing for clarification of their submission to the matter at hand, spreading her real hands out, "Can you at least understand my reasoning, if not accept it?"

Kokona looked to her kohai, but he'd lowered his head, giving a solemn nod to the nurse's question without looking up.

She nodded as well after a moment.

Trying to give them a smile as she turned away from them, she spoke with a calm tone, "Thank you. I'll be going out for a moment to buy some ointment for your burns. Stay in here for the time being. Hopefully, I won't be long."

With that, she walked out of her office.

After she'd left, the boy crossed his arms and sighed, "I don't think we have much choice in the matter of whether we go or stay. I doubt you or I could walk a meter without hurting ourselves more than that fire managed to do."

She could give no response, her looking down at her feet, the pain from the burns on the bottom of her feet and the ones that traveled up her to around her ankle still hurting the most.

As they sat in silence for the next few minutes, with Kokona laying down in a similar position the male next to her adopted, she would look at him for a long time before finally attempting to speak about what was on her mind.

"Hey, kohai?"

"Yes?" He looked over at her for the first time in a good while, his voice calmer than a minute before.

"Why did you go so far for my sake?"

He blinked in surprised confusion, only to answer her question with one of his own.

"Well, why wouldn't I?"

"Because you barely know me." Kokona said, her honest in this reasoning.

"Should I have to know you?" Kai asked, his confusion still evident in his expression.

"Not really. It just wouldn't be as strange if you did."

He seemed to think this over for a moment.

"Maybe." He replied. "But you're my friend, so that shouldn't matter."

"That too." Kokona said, expression speculative. "Why do you call yourself my friend?"

His expression flickered from surprise into a small bit of hurt at this question.

"We're friends, aren't we?"

"I'd like to say that, but we don't even know each other's names."

"Isn't yours Kokona?"

She blinked at this, surprised at him proving her half-wrong.

"Yes." She said slowly, the fact he knew her name creeping her out somewhat. "But how did you know?"

"Your friends called you that when I talked to them earlier, so I assumed that was your name. I was apparently right." He responded, his tone laced with relief, as though he wasn't even sure of it himself.

"Why?"

"That's a secret." He said, saying the first word a bit more slowly than the proceeding two as he looked away.

"Why? Correct me if I'm wrong, but people don't usually keep secrets with people they yell at a few minutes after first meeting them, right?" Kokona said with a quizzical expression.

He smiled lightly at that.

"No, you're right. I meant the reason they ended up saying your name is because of something I'd like to keep secret." He clarified a second afterwards.

"Alright then. I'll just ask them what you were talking about then." Kokona sat up as she said this.

His smile fell.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because friends share secrets with each other. This should fall under that jurisdiction."

Forcing herself not to wince as she reached into her pocket for her phone, Kokona was happy to see that the screen wasn't cracked from the throw the boy to her right had given her amidst the fire (she wondered for a moment just how strong he was), and turning the screen on, she found something that made her blink.

Several missed message flags and missed calls flags were in her phone's notifications.

Deciding to look through her messages, she blinked at the fact that all of her friends had texted her multiple times, trying to see if she was okay after they all collectively saw the burning gymnasium and heard of her club going there.

She felt mixed feelings at this realization.

She felt happy that they cared about her, but this happiness was dwarfed dramatically by the guilt she felt.

Looking towards her kohai, she remembered that she probably wouldn't be there then if it hadn't been for him, and wondering for a moment how her friends might react to her untimely death, she closed her eyes, muttering a small word of thanks to him again after her epiphany, though he didn't seem to hear.

After this happened, she would open her eyes once more and begin sending several messages assuring the five that she was indeed okay, and when this was accomplished, Kokona called Saki, bringing the phone to her ear and letting it ring for a moment.

It only rang once before Saki picked it up.

"Kokona?" She asked, sounding positively worried.

"Hello to you too." Kokona said with a playful smile.

Judging by her gasp and voice, Saki must have been extremely relieved about knowing it was her, "Oh thank goodness! You're safe!"

"Yes, I didn't die in a fire or anything, so need to worry." Kokona said, her making sure to keep her voice nonchalant to lessen any worries her friend may have had then, remembering that the lion's share of texts concerned the fire itself.

"How do you expect us NOT to worry?"

""Us"? Are you with everyone else right now?" Kokona looked down at her phone curiously.

"Yes, we were all worried sick. Where are you now?"

"I'm in the nurse's office." Despite her knowing her location, Kokona looked around the room as she said this.

"Alright. Stay where you are, we're all coming. See you in a sec."

Kokona's eyes widened at this.

"Wait, Saki, don't -"

The beeping sound signalling that the call had ended rang in her ear, and Kokona's mouth hung open, stopping herself mid-"come".

"I get the feeling that that didn't go as well as you wanted." The voice to her right noted rather humorously.

Kokona pouted, but said nothing, only reaching behind herself to the pillow she'd been laying on her head on and pulling it on top of her burnt legs, wincing strongly.

"Could you hide your burns, before they get here?" She asked, looking at him.

He blinked.

"They're coming here?"

Kokona nodded hurriedly.

"Wouldn't the pillow make it more obvious that you're hiding something?"

"I don't have much else to use. I have to least try not to worry them." Kokona replied, a cross look on her face. "So could you at least help in that regard?"

"Fine, fine, just wanted to point that out to you." He reached behind himself and placed the pillow on his feet. "We might have to tell the nurse about us using these things like this though. I don't think anyone would like using pillows that had burnt feet on them."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Kokona replied shortly, the door sliding open quickly after she said this.

Both students looked up, seeing the five girls that were Kokona's friends standing there.

"Oh, hey guys!" Kokona chirped, her voice notably happier now.

"Hey Kokona. Are you alright?" Mei asked, her voice more worried than happy, her being the one who opened up the door.

"I'm fine. What about you?"

The group of five shared a look, then looked back at their purple haired friend, Saki talking first, "We were all a little worried about you when we saw the gym burning down."

Yui turned to look at her, "A "little" worried? If you running around like a madwoman all across campus trying to find her is a "little" worried, I'd like to see what you're like when you're scared."

As Saki turned a deep shade of crimson at this, Kokona stared in surprise at them.

"You saw the fire? How? Half of you don't even have clubs on the same side of the school as the gym."

"Someone posted a video of it. Common sense would tell anyone it wasn't safe in there." Yui said, crossing her arms.

 _"Of course."_ Said the boy as he rolled his eyes as he muttered this in English.

He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised there'd be people more interested in posting videos of a building burning down than trying to alleviate the process of said building burning down.

As he mused this, his muttering caught the attention of Kokona's group.

"Hey, you're that guy from before." Koharu said in recognition.

"Yes." He returned his attention to the four girls he held strong antipathy for. "I suppose this is the part where I'd usually say that I'm glad to see you all again. But since my religion says lying's a sin, I won't say that to anyone except Miyu-senpai. Hello Miyu-senpai!" He waved whole-heartedly towards the Miku-lookalike, the somewhat sarcastic look he had shifting into a smile almost eerily.

"Hey, they get it," Saki gave a light scowl towards him in response, "They realize what they did was wrong. There's no need to be so mean."

"Did they apologize yet?" He asked, a considerable edge to his voice as the smile dropped.

"Yes. We all did." Saki crossed her arms.

His expression softened instantly.

"Then I'm sorry for my rudeness." He said with sincerity, bowing his head slightly whilst closing his eyes.

"It doesn't seem as genuine when you apologize for the same thing twice." Yuna pointed out.

"The same can be said of you guys' claim of being Kokona-senpai's friends," he looked up at her, the edge in his tone gone, "But I'm willing to overlook your past actions if you do the same for mine. Is that a fair deal?"

The blonde crossed her arms defensively, "I guess."

Kokona looked between her friends and the boy, confusion bringing itself out of her expression.

"Is there something you guys haven't told me?" She asked, the irony of her own words not lost on her.

"Oh," a look of realization flickered on the transfer student's face, "It's probably best to assume that after me yelling at them a few hours back we aren't exactly on the best of terms with each other."

Kokona looked back at her friends, who looked somewhat more awkward at the mention of the past event, their expressions and body language cementing the boy's words to be true.

"Oh." She said, not sure how to respond.

"But all's forgiven, right?" He looked at the group, and they gave a response that supplemented into a yes after exchaning glances amongst each other. "Alright then."

"I guess that's the case with you guys," Kokona cut in, looking at him again, "But that doesn't account for the secret you're keeping from me."

"They don't know anything more about it than you do." He said, his tone defensive.

"Is that true?" Kokona looked up at the girls now present.

"Wait, what now?" Koharu asked, confusion molding into her face in similar fashion to the people directly around her.

"He somehow knew my name because you guys said it before. I wanted to know the reason he ended up talking to you in the first place since he said he wanted to keep it a secret." Kokona explained.

"Oh _good job_ with the subtlety. I can BARELY tell just how nosy you're being." He said with potent sarcasm, holding his chin in his palm and looking away.

She decided to ignore him.

"Oh." Koharu rubbed her head in thought, looking a bit more awkward at the boy's response to Kokona's curiosity. "He was asking about what kind of things you liked, and your name sort of slipped out at one point. Sorry if we weren't supposed to say it."

"No, it's fine that you said my name, I'm just asking what he was talking about that's so secret." Kokona said with a patient tone.

Koharu blinked, then looked around at the other five, at an apparent loss for what else to say, them failing to find something relevant to add.

"I don't think he said what he wanted to do. He was just asking for what kind of things you liked." Mei spoke finally, shrugging lightly before looking over at the boy in question. "All he said was that it was some kind of secret."

Kokona followed her gaze, the boy sighing heavily at the stares he now had focused on him when the group of six collectively looked at him.

"You really want to know the reason I was asking about that?" He looked up, his tone even, but his expression making clear his reluctance to talk.

"Is it because you like her by any chance?" Yui looked at Kokona for emphasis, who blinked in surprise.

The boy too blinked, "What? Where'd you get that idea from?"

He found no pleasure in the almost evil smile that came onto Yui's lips a second later.

"Am I right? Because if I am, it'd probably explain a few things." She crossed her arms, the brown color of his skin failing to camoflauge the redness that rose in his face.

He only shook his head in exasperation at her a second later however.

"No, that's not it at all." He looked away from her as he grumbled this, to his right, his hands about to move towards his knees as they bended, but him stopping himself from revealing the burns on his legs before it was too late.

Instead, he opted to cross his arms like she did.

"What other reason could there be for you asking what kind of things Kokona likes then?"

With her red-eyed gaze studying him deeply, he closed his eyes at Yui's question.

"I was asking because I wanted to get her a gift for becoming a Club President," he confessed, "That doesn't happen everyday after all, so I wanted to give her something to celebrate it with," then he opened his eyes, "But since I've _barely known her for a full day_ ," a truly irritated glance was given to Yui as he put emphasis on the last seven words, as though to help cement the fact that, no, he had no feelings of the romantic type for Kokona and that Yui's assumption came out of left field for him, "I wanted to be sure that she'd like the gift. So I asked you all what kind of things she liked."

"Why do you call her your friend if you haven't even known her for a day?"

Saki was the one to ask this, her expression quizzical.

He gave a guarded glance to Kokona, then looked down, "Because I wanted to be her friend."

"That's it?"

"Yes." He said, this being a half-truth, but still the truth nonetheless.

Kai couldn't deny that he wanted to befriend the girl to his left as she attempted suicide in his dream of her.

Who knew, he thought, maybe she wouldn't want to kill herself if she thought someone cared for her.

But then, if feelings of loneliness were what fueled her attempted suicide, his companionship probably wouldn't be enough to prevent it, he thought grimly.

If a person felt lonely, it wouldn't be due to the number of friends they had, but due to how alone they felt.

A person could've befriended the whole world and still felt lonely at the end of the day, and the reverse could be said about someone who arguably had no friends feeling like they weren't truly alone at all.

He wouldn't tell the people in front of him his thoughts however.

"Is that fine with you?" Mei asked as he began his short lapse of thought, looking towards Kokona.

"I thought it was weird too, trust me," she said honestly whilst shrugging as a result of the looks her friends gave her, "But he said he wanted to be my friend, and I thought, "why not?" and just accepted it after a little while."

"Good to hear." He reached behind himself, to a curtain, and grasped it tightly in his hand, his eyes leaving it after this and focusing on them. "Now, since you all were so nosy as to ruin the surprise gift I wanted to give Kokona-senpai, I'll seclude myself to my thoughts until I can find a better means of celebration."

He thrust the curtain forward, it moving with a loud rattle, forming a paper-thin layer that masked him from the girls' sight and vice-versa, the curve the curtain's path went through finishing the barrier between them.

For a long moment, there was silence as the six friends stared at the curtain.

"Are you sure you can't just get up and leave to do that? We're all right here." Yuna pointed out to him.

"I could probably do that," he said, knowing within himself that he couldn't if he wanted to get the oinment from the nurse, "But that'd take the fun out of it." He continued, doing his best impression of a chipper tone, him being somewhat honest in his words.

Kokona wondered fleetingly if he genuinely meant this or was saying it as a bluff to hide the fact that they had burns, which reminded her to hope the nurse wouldn't return with the ointment too soon.

"What fun?" Yuna asked with a stare.

"The fun of secluded imagination. The mind is a wonderful and ever expanding place when you use it right. Just by cutting you all off from my area of sight I can make much more vivid details of what I'm going to do."

"Is it really cutting us off if you're still talking to us?" Kokona couldn't stop herself from asking, an eyebrow raised.

"I don't know. I haven't really started thinking much about the gift yet." He admitted from behind the curtain.

"You don't have to worry about giving me a gift." Needless to say, Kokona said this. "I appreciate the gesture, but I'm fine."

"I know I don't have to worry about giving you a gift. I'm only doing it because I want to give you one as congrats."

"Huh." Koharu stood on one foot and held her hip. "You might actually be nicer than I took you for."

"Thank you," he tried to recognize her voice for a moment, "Both for that compliment and your role in helping me out of the maze yesterday."

Koharu walked to the curtain, taking a light hold of it and pulling it back, her seeing he'd kicked his feet off to the side of the bed she couldn't see, "You said your name was Nasir, right?"

He stiffened at her pulling the curtain back, as he'd moved his feet from the pillow because of how stiff his legs were getting, but answered her question honestly anyways, "Yes, my name's Nasir, Kai."

"Were you just playing dumb yesterday when you said you couldn't speak Japanese?"

"Not really. I can understand it well, but I just didn't think I could speak it right, considering I still don't have the accent right now." He responded, and Koharu nodded towards him.

"Yeah, I can understand that. But I'm glad you came out of your shell. It's a lot less time consuming to just talk like this than wait for you to type something after all."

He gave a bitter smile to her in response.

" _Anyways_ ," Kai felt his heart stop when the girl next to him sat down on the bed behind him, positioning herself to look at him still, him becoming more conscious of his burn wounds than before, "You said you wanted to get Kokona a surprise gift?"

"I did. But now that that idea's ruined I might have to think of something else." Kai crossed his arms and looked down in thought, trying to will himself to calm down.

"Could we think about it together? Two heads are better than one after all."

As he looked behind himself to meet her eyes, Kai saw she had a glint of interest in her eyes, and he looked away a moment later, "Yeah, sure."

Koharu looked a bit crestfallen at his manner of response, "Do you not want me to help?"

His eyes snapped back up at hers, "No, I do want you to help," he insisted quickly, "I just didn't expect it is all."

As he looked away again, Koharu tilted her head, "What's wrong then?"

"I guess now I feel bad about accepting your help, when I've treated you the way I did."

"Hey." Kai looked up, seeing that the girl before him was smiling warmly. "All's forgiven, right?"

He smiled as well, nodding somewhat, trying in vain not to blush at her smile.

"Yes." He averted his eyes again. "I suppose my problem's just with forgiving myself."

"For what? You weren't exactly wrong to get mad at us earlier." Koharu said.

"I have my fair share of things to regret." He replied, though he seemed to speak more to himself than her. "Forgiveness is a struggle when it comes to myself, but I can forgive others pretty easily. Mostly."

Koharu felt surprise at his words.

"It's a little weird how fast the tone of this conversation's changed." She said, and Kai's eyes lit up in realization.

"Yes, you're right." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

Granted, he thought, the fact that someone died less than an hour before then would make it natural that the conversation would turn dark on his behalf.

Another life he could've potentially saved, lost, he thought with bitter regret.

"It's fine. You should be able to stand being more self-forgiving if what you said is true, but I'll let you sort that problem out yourself if that's what you prefer."

Kai nodded, "Okay. Thanks."

"Alright. Now, back to matter at hand," Koharu grasped her chin in her hand, "What would be best to surprise Kokona..."

"Yes, that's the golden question." Kai adopted a look similar to her.

"Hey guys...?" Kai and Koharu simultaneously looked up to find the remaining four of Kokona's friends standing before the bed, Saki being the one to speak, "Could we help brainstorm?"

"Go right ahead." Kai bent his legs so that they curled under the bed as he said this. "All the more brainpower at our disposal."

Kokona watched in silence as the group moved behind the curtain, and she pouted.

"Hey, that's no fair." She said loudly enough for them to hear. "You stole all my friends!"

"We are formulating the strategy for a good surprise that you'll probably see coming!" Kai said in response, "That is a very difficult thing to do!"

"I told you, I don't need a gift! Your congratulations is enough!"

"That's too boring!" Koharu answered loudly, an echo of Kai. "We can't have our drama queen get something that simple!"

From behind the curtain, Kokona saw a pair of feet land flat on the floor as someone stood up, reaching across to the end of the curtain closer to the wall and swinging her arm out, the curtain moving to reveal Yuna looking back at Koharu strangely.

"You know, you don't have to yell to talk to each other." She said, in a dispassionate voice.

"You're no fun Yuna." Koharu pouted at the blonde.

Kokona paled at the sight of Kai's feet dangling under the bed however, and he seemed to realize it too, as he planted his feet on the ground quickly.

Seeing his burns made guilt fester within Kokona once more, her mentally hitting herself for subconsciously letting her bad habit of pushing her darker thoughts to the back burner return with a vengeance.

Sure, she admitted to herself that it wasn't necessarily a totally bad habit to not think about stressful or depressing things, but at the same time it wasn't exactly a good habit to have, especially in a situation like this.

Someone had just gotten burned trying to save her from a fire, another had gotten killed by the one who, by extension, had caused the former to happen, and as far as she knew, the person responsible could've been walking around at that very moment.

Her lapse of justifiably worried thoughts were broken in their chain when Yuna's voice broke through it.

"Sorry I'm not a weirdo like you and maze runner here." The blonde freshman responded in a deadpan.

"Curiosity screwed me over." Kai said simply.

"Did it really?" A new voice carried itself into the room.

Kai looked behind himself at the door, finding someone he didn't quite recognize standing there with a simple white shirt and blue legless bottoms on.

"Yes." He said in a slow voice, everyone else present turning to look at the newcomer who wore the gym uniform, her having gray eyes, black hair tied into a simple ponytail.

"Are you a friend of Kokona-senpai's?" He asked curiously.

"No." She responded, looking towards the person in question.

Kokona, not knowing who this person was, could only give a strange look to the person before her.

She seemed to stare at her for a moment longer than necessary, and though she stared back, Kokona found herself gradually more offput by her look.

In that short time period, Kokona felt as though the person wearing the gym uniform was glaring at her, her blank face notwithstanding.

But then she broke eye contact with Kokona, and the feeling, almost like a squeezing in her chest, dissipated instantly, so little of a trace remaining that Kokona wondered if she imagined it.

The newcomer walked forward, looking down at the pillow Kokona had over her burns.

"Are you okay?" She asked, looking her in the eye again.

"Yes, I'm fine." Kokona replied quickly.

Now she was sure she wasn't imagining it.

She felt VERY uncomfortable being under the girl's gaze again.

Said girl looked down at the pillow curiously, "I heard that you got burned in the fire. Is that true?"

Kokona gave a taken aback look, and in her peripheral vision, Kai seemed to freeze up.

"Who told you that?" She asked, the girl shaking her head at Kokona's question.

"It's just a rumor. I just wanted to be sure that you were okay."

"Oh. Uh..." Kokona looked down at her covered feet, eyes narrowing uneasily as she trailed.

"Were they?" She asked, eyes flicking to her troubled face again.

"I don't remember telling you two you could bring friends in here." The nurse's voice (thankfully) drew all attention away from Kokona, as everyone, sans Kai, had been looking at the club president in a surprised or curious manner.

"Sorry," Kokona said earnestly, "I was just trying to call my friends to ask about something, but since they were close, they came here to check on me."

The nurse looked at the people the many people in the room, "It's good that you have friends to check up on you, but I don't think they should be here right now."

"Sorry, we'll get going then." Saki said, standing up and looking around at all of her friends, "We were just talking about a few things."

The other four murmured their quick apologies and got up as well, Saki turning to look at Kokona again, eyes flickering in worry, "But... Did you get burned Kokona?"

Kokona felt like a trapped animal for a moment, wondering if she'd be able to hide it any longer.

Without any way to do this without lying however, Kokona sighed in defeat, "Yes. I got burned."

Saki's eyes widened, then narrowed again in stronger worry.

"Where? Is it bad?"

In a second's time, the cyan haired girl was at her side, eyes tensed as she searched her friend for any burns.

"I don't think it'd be best for you to see it right now." Kokona said, and Saki's eyes tensed even more at this.

"Okay." She said, seemingly with some difficulty, looking down at the pillow on her legs. "Is it that bad?"

"Yeah." Kokona nodded, her voice suddenly quiet.

"I'm sorry we couldn't help you Kokona." Saki said, "I hoped things would've gone better than you getting burned."

"It could be worse." Kokona said, meeting Saki's eyes and forcing herself to give a comforting smile. "You can thank the guy over there for it not being like that."

Saki looked behind herself when Kokona nodded at the only male in the room, before looking at her friend again again, "Did he...?"

Reading the worry in her eyes, Kokona nodded reluctantly, "Yes, he got burned trying to get me out of the fire."

The newcomer's eyes widened at this information, her looking behind herself at the sole male in the room.

Kai kept himself turned away from them all, him relaxing the muscles in his body and letting his feet sag down to the floor.

The cat was out of the bag, so there was no point in trying to hide it.

He looked back at the group only when he heard Saki calling his name.

"Nasir?"

Turning to face her, Kai felt surprise flare up within him when the Miku-lookalike bent herself down, "Thank you for helping Kokona. I'm not sure what I'd do if something happened to her."

A moment of silence passed them by as Saki pulled herself up, and Kai shook his head at her words despite being taken aback.

"Don't thank me. That was what I supposed to do. As her friend, I mean." He added as an afterthought, looking at Saki intently. "Even though I helped her, I feel bad that I didn't move faster to help. If I hadn't hesitated in the last second, she might not even be as hurt as she is now."

Saki gave him a weird look.

"Well, maybe, but you don't know that for sure."

"Maybe not." Kai looked down slightly. "But I just wish I could've done more."

"Nasir." He looked up, seeing Koharu looking at him. "You just said you have a problem with forgiving yourself. I don't see how you'll help that by blaming yourself for something that wasn't even your fault."

"Yes, but still." Kai reached up, placing a hand over his chest, the cross he wore around his neck pressing against his skin again, closing his eyes. "I could've done that faster. I should've been faster. If I hadn't hesitated to get to her..."

No, Kai realized, he couldn't even call it hesitating.

He had to use that damned mantra to hike himself up to the task of helping Kokona.

If it hadn't been for that...

"Weren't you listening?" Koharu said, exasperation in her voice, "That wasn't your fault. You should be glad that you were able to help her and get out in one piece yourself."

"Yes, thank God." He said, closing his eyes as though in prayer. "But I still shouldn't take the credit for it. I still hesitated in the end to help her."

Kokona looked at him strangely now.

"You're _really_ going to beat yourself up for hesitating to step into flames, untie me, single-handedly _throw me_ _out_ of the fire, while standing in it yourself, and getting yourself out after doing all of that?"

"Yes." Kai looked up at Kokona, meeting her in the eyes and saying this firmly. "As your friend, doing all of that should've been second-nature to me." He looked away guiltily. "But, apparently it still isn't."

"You shouldn't beat yourself up over this." The girl in the gym uniform spoke up then, him having her complete attention as she looked at him. "Going that far for someone else shouldn't be second nature. Unless of course you were to love her."

The implicit meaning the girl had behind her use of the word "love" flew right over Kai's head.

"What if I do?" He asked without thinking, holding her gaze, not looking at the surprised looks he was given by everyone else, the nurse included.

"I mean, what kind of person doesn't love their own friend?" He added as an afterthought amidst the moment of silence that started.

Kokona's widened eyes relaxed at this, his words from the day before echoing in the back of her mind again, to the time when he first gave her a reason for why he claimed to want to be there for her.

 _"For starters, during one of the times when Christ preached to a large group of people, if my memory serves me right, he said something along the lines of "I'm surrounded by my friends. Greater love has no man than this, that he may lay down his life for his friends.""_

The day before, she barely kept herself from laughing at his logic of calling someone he'd just met minutes ago his friend, given those terms, and only chalked it up as a hyperbole on his part.

It was only then that she realized just how serious he was when he said that.

With this realization only came speechlessness.

"I see." The girl in the gym uniform said, a mild layer of surprise in her voice but nothing else. "You're saying that, as her friend, you should be willing to go so far for her?"

"Yes. That's how it should be, at least from my view." He answered unabashedly.

"I see." She repeated herself, turning away. "I imagine you'd be a good person for her to date then."

"It isn't like that." Kai said evenly, though with a hint of insistence. "She's just my friend, nothing more, nothing less."

"I understand. I'm just saying that she'd probably feel safer with you as a boyfriend." She said, not turning to look back at him as she walked toward the exit.

"She deserves better, so I doubt that'll ever happen." Kai crossed his arms, looking forward.

She didn't respond to his words, walking past the nurse and leaving out of the opened door.

As silence filled the room once more, Kai looked behind himself at the six girls staring in surprise at him.

"What?" He said uneasily, arms crossing themselves tighter than before, looking forward again. "She does deserve better."

His expression fell into that of strong surprise when a pair of arms wrapped tightly around him, the hugger squeezing him as tightly as she saw fit, rocking him around happily as she spoke.

"Awwww, that's such a sweet thing for you to say!" Koharu said, only half-joking, Kai too stunned by her roughness to respond properly.

* * *

When Ayano walked a fair distance away from the nurse's office, she sighed heavily, going to her shoe locker and opening it up, finding her phone laying there.

Upon picking it up, Ayano realized a new message had come in for her.

 **Feeling a little tired?**

 _I imagine I feel more irritated than tired._

 **Really? Is that a new emotion for you?**

 _Yes.  
At least now I know how Kokona survived getting set on fire._

 **It was that transfer student, right?**

Ayano narrowed her eyes.

 _Don't tell me you knew from the start._

 **No. I just hacked into Kokona's phone and turned on the video chat function without her knowing.**

She wondered if a normal person would've felt compelled to ask how the pervert had pulled such a thing off.

She decided not to however.

 _Why did you hack into her phone in the first place?_

 **I was curious about how she managed to survive this long. Now we both know.  
I also want to thank you.**

 _For what?_

 **Thanks to you, I now know what the transfer student's persona is.**

 _What?_

Ayano felt curiosity rise within her.

A person's persona was the result of Info-chan grouping certain people together by personality, and based on what Info-chan told her, certain people with certain personas would be troublesome to deal with when faced with the knowledge of her murders.

She hadn't been caught killing anyone yet, but it never hurt to be careful.

Especially when it was her Senpai on the line.

When her phone vibrated with the answer at last, Ayano felt confusion for a moment.

 **He has the Devoted persona.**

 _The "Devoted" persona? What's that?_

 **It's similar to a Heroic persona, you could say.**

 _How?_

 **A Heroic persona constantly does what they believe is best for everyone around them. A Devoted persona is basically the same thing, only it's narrowed down to a few people.**

 _So it's going to be hard to get around him, from what you can tell?_

 **Of course.  
That's what you should expect from someone with the same persona as you.**

Ayano blinked at this.

 **Though, at the same time, you're probably the worst case of a Devoted persona I've ever seen thus far. So that's probably not a fair comparison.**

Ayano scowled.

 _That doesn't matter. It just means I have to find a way to eliminate Haruka without him being around._

She walked out of the school with this, eyes narrowed in thought.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, this came out longer than I expected it to be.**

 **But I've no qualms about it.**

 **It was fun writing all of this.**

 **Ayano goofed: I suppose you'd be right if the situation were different. However, I doubt most people's reaction to attempted murder via setting someone on fire would be to dog pile the person responsible for said fire before trying to help the person being burned alive at that moment.** **If someone were to actually do that, I'm not sure whether that'd be the smartest move or not, considering they'd be prioritizing catching the killer over saving the victim.**


	9. Regrets

The ointment the nurse bought proved to be somewhat soothing to the pain coming from the burns Kokona had on her legs and feet.

The nurse's latex gloved hand had been gentle as she applied the ointment to her burns, and though Kokona winced greatly, she was able to stop herself from making any sound of pain by tightening the grip she had on Saki's supportive hand, the girl who stood dutifully at her side seeming to try to give a soothing smile, though she never managed to through Kokona's evidently pained expressions, whilst forcing herself not to look at her burns as she stood behind a curtain, her efforts to support Kokona somewhat vain in that Kokona wasn't even looking at her.

When the nurse finished with treating Kokona's wounds, she would smile lightly up at her from the crouched down position she assumed to Kokona's right side as she stood next to Saki, "Alright, now to get to rubbing this stuff into your friend."

Kokona, for the first time since the nurse started treating her wounds, looked up at Saki, who still smiled down at her whilst starting to squeeze her hand back, before the purple haired girl's gaze shifted over to Kai, who mirrored Saki's would-be comforting expression to her as he looked at her through the small crack of space between the wall and the curtain's edge that revealed her face to him.

His look dropped in its entirety when he saw the nurse walking from behind the curtain, taking off her used latex gloves, and replacing them after washing her hands for good measure, Kokona's friends standing near the sink, Kai knowing what was to come.

As she approached his bedside, whilst applying ointment to her middle and ring-fingers, clasped as closely together as possible like her other fingers, he looked up her, watching as she crouched down to the side of his bed.

"Are you ready?" She asked, the question rhetorical.

He nodded glumly, expression solemn as he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the ointment to be applied.

At the sight of his wincing upon the nurse touching his burns, Kokona felt guilt rise within her again.

Though her getting set on fire, needles to say, was definitely not of her own volition, and the choice he made to step into the fire to help her wasn't within her realm of influence, she felt guilt simply for the fact that she was the pivotal reason for him being in pain then.

She provided none of the awkward comfort-smiles he and Saki had given to her, as his closed eyes defeated the purpose of such a gesture, her only watching silently as he endured the sensation of the ointment being applied to his burns.

When the nurse finally finished minutes later, she would stand up, Kai's eyes opening themselves up to look up at her after he heard the sound of the curtain opening itself up.

"I've given you both all the ointment you'll need for now. Thank you both for cooperating with me as much as you have." She looked at him primarily as he listened, but still gave a glance back at Kokona nonetheless, who was revealed completely now, her burns signficantly less painful to look at, but not much else.

Kai simply crossed his arms, forcing a playful smile to his face, "It was no problem. Not like we had much of a choice in the matter though."

"Fair enough," the nurse smiled, looking behind herself at Kokona, "By the way, I tried calling your house to explain the situation after I came back from the store, but no one picked up. Is there any way you could contact your father for me?"

Kokona blinked in surprise at this, but relaxed as suddenly as her body stiffened.

"I don't think so. I think I'll be able to explain the situation to my dad myself, but thank you for trying anyways." Kokona said calmly, not letting Saki's suddenly worried expression hinder this.

"Are you sure?"

The nurse seemed hesitant to ask going off of her tone.

Kokona nodded firmly, "Yes. Do you think we'll be able to walk normally soon?" Kokona looked down at her legs for emphasis, "It'd be best if I told him ASAP."

The nurse followed her gaze to her legs, then shrugged reluctantly, "I'd say so. I'll need you to come to me first thing tomorrow morning to check your legs again though."

She turned to look at Kai now.

"When I called your house, someone said she'd be coming here as soon as possible. That was several minutes ago, so I can't be sure how far away she'll be now. Can I assume that that was your mother?"

Kai gave an incredibly taken aback look at this, but shook his head quickly, "No, that was probably my roommate."

The nurse quirked an eyebrow.

"Your roommate's a girl?"

"Yes." Kai nodded firmly.

"Is there anyone else living with you two?"

"No. It's just me and her." Kai crossed his arms as he became aware of the looks everyone gave him.

Kokona, though not being as extreme a case as those around her, still felt surprise nonetheless, the full implications of Kai's living circumstances not dawning on her until just then, when her head wasn't delving deep into her extracurricular problems (she had a lot of problems in her life, didn't she?).

"Is she your legal guardian?" The nurse asked, an edge to her tone.

"You could say that. We haven't had the chance to make her my legal guardian yet, but we're hoping to go to the Family Court soon." Kai met the nurse's gaze, "Could you tell me what exactly is the matter with that though?"

"There's nothing wrong with it."

She wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she wasn't meeting his eyes.

"Why are all of you looking at me like that then?" Kai looked around at the other girls in the room, who immediately averted their gazes in a manner not unlike the nurse, his tone, although curious, being very much annoyed.

"How old is she?" The nurse asked, glancing at him again.

He gave her a weird look in response.

"I thought girls were supposed to hate the subject of their age coming up." He said, his confusion and surprise evident.

"Usually, but this is an exception." She'd sound more convincing if she didn't look so awkward about it, Kai thought. "I need to know that your guardian isn't too young after all."

He did nothing to hide the skepticism he felt from coming to his face, but answered honestly nonetheless.

"She's in her mid-20s."

"Oh." The nurse looked behind herself, at Kokona, then looked back at Kai, "How old are you then?"

"I'm 17." He replied, eyes narrowing at the way she looked behind herself at Kokona again.

"You're a third year, right?" The nurse asked her.

"Yes." Kokona said warily, made a bit uncomfortable by the small glint in the pink haired woman's eyes. "Why?"

She leaned down to be on her eye level, whispering with her left hand curled near, but not on, the left side of her mouth, "I think he might have a thing for older women. You might have a fair shot with him, so you should go for it."

Kokona flinched, the nurse's words being as surprising for her as the obligatory jump scare in horror films for most.

" _What_?" She asked, voice as hushed as the nurse's, and the older of the two smiled.

"How often do you come across a boy so willing to say that he loves and wants to protect you? What that girl said earlier was right; he'd make a wonderful boyfriend to have. So go for it."

Kokona simply stared silently at the woman for a moment.

"You do know I can still hear you right?" Kai said behind her.

"People shouldn't eavesdrop in matters as sensitive as these." The nurse looked behind herself to him.

"I have every right to eavesdrop. If it weren't so obvious you were talking about me, then I'd probably be guilty."

"Fine then. Would you be willing to be this girl's boyfriend?" The nurse turned to him, hands on her hips.

Kai closed his eyes tiredly and supported his forehead on the palm of his right hand.

"Like I said before, she deserves better."

"That isn't what I asked." The nurse crossed her arms at him.

"Fine, then no." He opened an eye to her, then amended his words. "I wouldn't be willing, because she deserves better."

"So you're saying you don't deserve to be her boyfriend?"

"No, I don't deserve to be that to her," he said simply, "Or to anyone, really."

He whispered the last part, as an afterthought, looking away for a moment.

Even without his religion's opposition to pride and arrogance, Kai would never be so pig-headed as to think that he honestly, truthfully, deserved to be something special, in the romantic sense or otherwise, to anyone.

From his perspective, a relationship was just a successful mixture of two people's efforts to allow some type of emotional bondage to be put between them both.

If one person was trying to have a relationship with someone else, but the other person never gave any effort back, it would be one-sided, and therefore, obselete as a relationship.

In this circumstance, that rule was applicable for both him and, as he could only assume, Kokona.

His relationship of friendship with her had barely rooted itself deeply enough for him to justify the lengths he'd gone to just to help her, and even then, their impromptu friendship was simply his excuse for wanting to help her in the first place (he still took his self-claimed position as Kokona's friend seriously, excuse or no excuse, but still).

Regardless of his reasons, however, his relationship with Kokona had barely even cemented itself fully, in part because they simply knew next to nothing about one another.

Kokona, as she'd revealed several minutes before then, hadn't even had a chance to know his name for much of the day they'd known each other, and the same went for him.

So, in short, they hadn't even properly introduced themselves to each other, even at that point in time, simply opting to call each other by their placement of school year experience.

Given the extremely short time they'd known each other, coupled with the above facts, calling them friends would be stretching the implications of the word GREATLY, to say the least.

Therefore, a relationship of anything of more weight than friendship with Kokona, for him, would be as unnatural a thing to have as he percieved the act of one getting a mail-order bride from a foreign country would be.

In truth, their relationship edged onto the jurisdiction of being compared to the cases of when said brides didn't even know the same language as the husbands who ordered them, as far as he was concerned, considering he wouldn't even know the Japanese language had it not been for his roommate.

"Don't get me wrong, I do find her very attractive, and she has a good personality, but we barely know each other that well."

Kokona imagined she'd have a sweat drop on her head if she were in an anime when Kai said this.

Though she indeed appreciated the compliments, she had a strong feeling that they only served to hurt his case more than help it.

The living embodiment of the proof of her thoughts came in the smile the nurse gave her in the next moment.

It wasn't kind by any stretch of the word, and was instead sly, as though searching Kokona's expression for any hint of embarassment, only to find disappointment when Kokona decided to nod to affirm Kai's words, after a moment of hesitation.

"He's right. We've barely known each other for over a day, probably not even that long, so having him as a boyfriend would be pretty weird in itself."

As though on cue, one of the two pairs of double doors slid open, the thing drawing everyone's attention to the cause of this being the voice of the woman who opened the door.

"Well that's a boring thing for you to decide." She said loudly upon entrance, shaking her head at Kokona as everyone looked towards her.

She was a woman of Japanese ethnicity, her black hair coming down in moderately long locks, scraping down near the bottom of her neck, her skin a bit pale.

She wore a long traditional style dress, it reaching so low that her feet were covered, her waist accentuated by the fabric wrapping tightly around it.

"It's better to be boring than not to make sense." Kai replied almost immediately, looking up at her, "Also, just out of curiosity, how long were you listening Sekai?"

"Around the time where you said something about someone deserving something better." She replied to his question unashamedly, not seeming to care about the fact that everyone was staring at her yukata.

"Alright then." Kai looked over to the nurse, not reacting in the slightest to the boldness of Sekai's admission, for he'd become a hypocrite if he reacted negatively. "Do you know how long before our burns should heal over?"

The nurse, still blatantly surprised at Sekai's entrance, looked over to him, her adopting a thoughtful look.

"It'd be best if you didn't put yourselves into too much strain for a few days. They should heal over in a week or so."

"Alright." Kai looked up at Sekai now. "I suppose you'd like to go about now."

"I would, yes. I don't want you to force yourself though."

A knowing flicker came into Sekai's brown eyes despite her words, and Kai knew what she was thinking.

He'd been through much worse than a few burns on his legs, and he rarely, if ever, complained during those times, he thought.

"I'm about as ready to leave now as you are. But before that," Kai's gaze turned to Kokona, "There's something I need to ask her first."

"What is it?" Kokona asked, tone now curious.

"Do you think your dad can come to take you home?"

Kokona blinked, but shook her head, "No. I'll be able to go home myself."

"Would it be okay if I walked you home?" Kai did his best to keep a straight face amidst the looks he gained. "I want to be sure that you're safe after all."

Kokona looked somewhat taken aback.

"Oh, uh..." She forced herself to give him a smile, "Don't worry. I'm sure I'll be fine."

Why couldn't she ever sound convincing when she needed to most?

Kokona knew within herself that she worried about the chances of the person with the mask coming after her again as she went home, but couldn't bring herself to say anything before her friends.

Or perhaps it wasn't just them, Kokona thought.

There came the inherent fear of others dying because of her, and she didn't want to experience that sort of guilt, her fear of death notwithstanding.

Not to mention that Kai's own suffering had been because of her.

She already felt awful enough as it was with Dorama's death hanging over her head then.

She didn't want to risk anyone else getting hurt unnecessarily, or worse, dying.

She'd already had enough of death after her mother passed away.

"Maybe _you're_ sure," Kai's voice brought her out of her thoughts, "But to be frank, I'm not," he then looked down, a trace of guilt in his voice now, "Besides, I don't want to imagine how worried your parents would be if something happened."

The looks that Kokona's friends had fell, becoming somewhat awkward, them all reflexively looking at Kokona at Kai's use of the plural word for her primary birth givers.

Kokona could tell that they were worried Kai's comment about her parents would strike a nerve by bringing up a sore subject, but she showed not the slightest sign of this being the case.

It wasn't his fault he knew nothing of her familial situation.

"You shouldn't worry." Kokona said, her voice now flat.

"I doubt that. It can be good in these situations to worry. It makes me feel like my wanting to walk you home is something that makes perfect sense."

"What would you do if something were to happen?" Kokona asked, surprised at how challenging her own voice was.

Kai blinked in surprise, but he gave an answer she half-expected and feared.

"Shouldn't that be obvious?" He stared. "Do all I can to keep anything from happening."

"Will me saying "no" be enough to get you to not come with me?" Kokona decided to ask this outright, her tone having a trace of tiredness, as though she expected him to fight her on the matter.

To her own surprise, he didn't persevere.

"It probably would be enough." Kai sighed softly, almost defeatedly, as he looked away from her, his look and voice becoming distant. "I can't force you to let me stick around until you're safe at home. But if you give me the okay, I won't hesitate to. So, really, the choice is yours. You already know my answer."

Kokona stared at him in surprise, but soon nodded.

"I understand."

"I'm glad you do." He glanced over to her. "But I'd like it most if you could answer me. If you don't want me to come along with you, then I might as well be on my way now. But at the same time, I would still worry about you."

Kokona mulled the decision within her head for but a moment.

"I think... I'd like it if you came with me after all."

In the end, she allowed her fear for herself override her fear for others, she thought to herself with strong bitterness.

* * *

The walk home felt quite different for her that afternoon.

There was a strange tension in the air, despite the amount of conversation being done, a result of Kokona's group deciding to tag themselves along as they went to her house.

Kai and his guardian, who had identified herself as Sekai, stood a small distance away from the group, enough to respect the boundaries of personal space, but it wasn't unlike there being an invisible bubble between both groups of people, separating them.

Despite the separation, Kai didn't seem to mind, giving more attention to his surroundings and his guardian rather than to Kokona and her friends' conversation.

The victims of the fire both wore their normal shoes at that moment, yet the small but ever-present wince of pain each gave for every step remained for the duration of the walk.

The majority of her conversation felt different perhaps due to its dark nature, centering around the gym burning down.

"Do you know why someone would set the gym on fire?" Mei asked, blue eyes curious as she looked at Kokona, who shook her head.

A better question would be why anyone would want to set HER on fire, Kokona thought to herself.

It'd be understandable that they didn't wonder this however.

At this point, she still had yet to tell them what exactly had happened to her to get burned, and they hadn't asked.

"Do you know how the fire started?" Sekai asked, and Kokona looked up at the woman, who gazed at her with concern.

"Someone with a mask on their face started the fire while my club was rehearsing for a play." Kokona said, reaching up and fingering her club president band half-mindedly.

"What did they do? Did you see what they looked like besides the mask?" Sekai asked.

"No, only that the person responsible was a girl."

"Did anyone else get burned other than you two?"

The thought of Dorama popped into her mind.

"Yes, one did get burned." She said, her tone very much dark.

"I see." Sekai said, looking down at Kai, but didn't question her further.

"Would you mind it if I asked how you two met?" Koharu looked at Sekai and Kai, looking between them, her having held in the question for a long time now. "You don't really look like you're family."

"Isn't that kind of a given?" Sekai asked, "I mean, unless having different hair, skin, accents, and eye colors doesn't give that away."

"I can see where he got his snark from." Yui said in as deadpan a tone as Sekai spoke in.

She smiled bitterly at them, and Kai answered Koharu's question.

"You could say I'm a... friend of her family." He said after a moment of consideration for the right way to phrase it.

"How so?" Koharu asked.

Kai glanced up at Sekai, and she gave an almost imperceptable nod.

"I was married for a short time, and he was a member of the family I married into."

Koharu tilted her head in confusion, "Wait, wouldn't that make you relatives by marriage?"

"It's... complicated." Kai said with a sigh.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Koharu asked, and Kai shook his head.

"It's a bit of a sore subject, so I'd prefer not to." Kai said.

Koharu nodded in understanding.

"Alright."

With these simple questions, it seemed that the invisible bubble separating the two groups dissipated.

Kokona quickly noticed that her friends became more willing to question Kai about himself, and though he was somewhat awkward about the attention they gave him, he still seemed open to conversation.

By the time they arrived at her house, Kai was deep in conversation about the nature of his job as a manga artist.

"Is it usually hard to make up plotlines for certain things?" Saki asked, to which Kai nodded.

"Yes. It can be a little frustrating sometimes." Kai sighed fitfully, "You can usually go through a lot of effort to make up something good, but then it can turn out that no one likes it very much. I usually don't enjoy writing things like romance or things like that, but since I want to be successful, I have to make what's popular."

"What other genres do you write for then?"

"Usually horror, but..." He adopted a thoughtful look. "I guess I can understand why that's not very popular. No one enjoys bad endings or unlikable characters after all. Though some of the romantic things I've drawn have some of the latter and are still popular..."

A trace of bitterness tinged his voice as he said this, and Koharu tilted her head, "Would you let me read some if I asked for a copy?"

His answer was almost immediate.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea."

"Why not? I'll even pay for it."

He didn't meet her eyes as he responded, "I guess it'd make me a bit self-conscious if you did."

"What's the point of hoping it gets popular if you don't want to let me read?"

"It's not it being popular that's the problem." Kai said, "It's the things inside the more popular ones that would make me self-conscious about you reading them."

She gave a short giggle at him, "I don't want to read the popular things. I wanted to read the horror ones."

Kai blinked in surprise at this.

"What?"

"I want to help you enjoy drawing your manga. After all, if you do things you dislike with a great skill, all you'll end up doing is making yourself hate doing it."

He smiled awkwardly at that, "Well, I appreciate the gesture," he glanced away from her, "But I REALLY don't think anyone should be reading something like that."

"Why not? Do you think it's too scary for a girl like me?" She said teasingly.

He actually thought it over in his head.

"Considering it was scary enough for my boss' wife to be afraid of going to sleep at night, I'm not sure what to say." Kai looked up at the sky. "She said I draw pretty well, but that I should focus on something other than horror."

"What's the fun of that?" Koharu asked, "Come on, I'm sure I can handle it."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Kai looked her in the eye, genuine concern in his gaze.

There was a moment of silence.

"Yes." Koharu said, somewhat unconvincingly.

"Are you REALLY sure?" Mei asked next to her, her gaze to the green haired girl's response mirroring Kai's.

"I'm doing what I can to support my friend. If it makes him happy and makes his life a bit easier, then what's the worst that can happen?"

"If this were a horror manga, I'm willing to bet the second you said that, terrible things would prepare themselves to happen to you." Kai said, his bitter smile faint.

Koharu pouted, "Hey, don't jinx it."

"Calm down. I'm sure you'll be fine. I might be thinking of the wrong type of horror, but the only people who get hurt or anything first are usually the people who don't have the same ethnicity as the demographic," he lifted an index finger, "Don't do the more sensible things when faced with danger," a middle finger, "Or are the first ones to fornicate or get sexualized in some way."

He then shrugged, "So, going based off the fact that I fit the first thing the most out of everyone here, bad things are liable to happen to me first, right?"

The large majority of the group's eyes turned towards Kokona and Saki despite his words, the third thing he'd said causing their actions.

"Well thanks for the confidence boost guys." Saki rolled her eyes lightly at the implication of their gazes. "I feel SO safe from how you're looking at us right now."

Kai looked over to her at this, blinking in confusion, "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Forget it Nasir," Kokona said quickly, cocking her head back and closing her eyes, "You don't need to know."

In the worst case scenario, their gazes would be because of the Fakebook post from the night before, under which case Kokona would qualify for the third thing Kai had said.

In the best case scenario, with a mild stretching of the word "best", their looks would be fueled by the fact that they knew of the "big breasted damsel in distress being the first to get killed by the horror movie antagonist" cliche, and had reacted according to which of the group would qualify for the part of that, this being Saki and Kokona.

They couldn't help the fact that they were well-endowed, Kokona thought to herself, so there shouldn't have been any reason for anyone to assume that they would be the first victims of the villain-character in some horror story scenario.

Right?

Sekai followed the gazes of the four girls, and seeming to understand, she stifled a laugh to herself, bringing her fingers to her mouth, but only managing to do this to a point that mellowed her laugh down to a snicker.

Looking up at the woman next to him, Kai looked a her curiously, "What is it?"

"It's nothing." Her tone was even, though she was betrayed by her small smile, her lifting a hand and placing it on his shoulder supportively. "Just retain what little innocence you wish you had left."

"Huh?" Kai tilted his head in confusion.

"You don't need to know. Just do as your senpai said and forget the whole discussion altogether." Sekai insisted.

"Well this took a turn." Kai thought aloud.

"Would you be willing to let me read your manga, if I paid for it?" Koharu decided to ask again.

"I wouldn't be." Kai replied.

"Oh come on, what have you got to lose?" She asked playfully.

"The absence of my guilt not getting any worse than it already is, the chance to not see you become more and more tired from sleep deprivation before you ask me to never let you read it again, some other third thing, et cetera."

"I'll be the judge of that." Koharu said boldly.

"Okay." Kai said, glancing over at her, "Don't say I didn't warn you though."

"Hey, why does she get to read it?" Kokona looked over at him with a pout.

"Well, for starters, she was willing to pay. Do you know how invigorating the thought is for someone being willing to read your hard work and pay you to do it, coupled with the hope that they might enjoy it?" Kai smiled blissfully at the thought.

"But I thought you said that since it came from you, it's supposed to have the darkest limits to human imagination or something. Am I wrong?"

"Nope, my claim still stands." Kai said with a chipper tone, "My imagination is the darkest you can hope to see in this life."

"How can you be so sure?" Yui asked, "Do you think just because you know a few horror cliches you're a master at horror?"

"No. I think I'm a master at horror because I know what people are afraid of, and I horribly exploit it."

There was no mistaking that the smile on his lips then was that of genuine evil.

"Ha." Koharu's forced laugh seemed to carry an edge of nervousness now. "Well, on second thought, if that's the case..."

His smile dropped at this, him looking curiously at her, "Oh, getting cold feet?"

"I guess, given your claims of a track record for this sort of thing."

He smiled bitterly at her, "Well, I suppose I'm glad you made that decision."

"Sorry." Koharu crossed her arms, returning his bitter smile with her own.

"It's fine. People do say the horror ones are a little too intense for most. So I don't want you to see it, now that I think of it."

Koharu pouted, "Stop saying that. You're making me curious."

"Oh?" Kai crossed his arms, "Is that really my fault?"

"Yes. You're toying with my emotions. You make it sound interesting, then you make it sound too scary, then you make it interesting again. You have to make up your mind if you're going to try selling me something."

"Isn't doing that a basic way of being ethical about this kind of thing?" Kai asked, "I mean, you don't want someone to sell you something and you don't know what you're buying, right?"

"That is a good point." Yuna said, "Though he sounded a little creepy a second ago, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd scam other people. He's too honest for that."

"What makes you so sure he wouldn't be above scamming people?" Koharu asked the blonde.

"You mean BESIDES his not-so-subtle compliments to drama queen over here, when he was trying to say he didn't like her?" Yuna looked over at Kokona, "I think the whole thing of him blowing his cap over how we all reacted to that post yesterday should say something."

Koharu blinked, then felt guilt fester within her.

"Oh... right." She said, suddenly uncomfortable.

"So, in that instance, if he got that mad because we were treating Kokona badly, when he'd barely known her for a day, then I doubt that you need to worry about him scamming you out of your money when you two seem so friendly yourselves."

"Hm?" Koharu and Kai vocalized their emotions simultaneously.

"I mean, it's kind of obvious. You two seem to mesh well together. Right?" Yuna looked at her friends for affirmation, and they all nodded.

"Going based off the fact that you're talking a lot more than you usually do, when you don't need to, is a strong sign of it." Sekai said, looking at Kai.

"Really?" Kai looked over at his guardian in surprise. "I hadn't noticed."

"I didn't count on you doing that." She smiled at him.

"This is the house." Kokona said suddenly, stopping in front of her home, everyone else stopping quickly after her.

She turned to them, smiling lightly, "Thanks for walking me home. I'm not sure if I needed it, but it's still nice to take a walk like this."

Kai smiled at her, "I'm happy that I offered. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to."

He beamed somewhat as he looked at everyone else present, and Kokona smiled.

Though her fears had been for naught, she was glad to see him able to enjoy himself in conversing with others.

She knew nothing of how social a person he was, but it was nice for him to be able to have some sort of preoccupation from the less than savory details of the last twenty four hours or so of his life.

"Be safe everyone. I think I'll be going to sleep now." Kokona said, walking towards her front door, her knowing that she couldn't afford to rest there for very long.

She still needed to pick up the rest of her money after all.

"Get some good rest Kokona-senpai." Kai called to her back, and she smiled despite herself, turning and waving back at him.

"I will, see you all later!"

By this point, she'd reached the front door, and finding her key, she would open the door seconds later, entering her home and closing the door behind herself.

Kokona sighed softly to herself, walking forward, sensing the house to be much more silent than it usually was at this time.

Walking into the household, she found several bottles of alcohol lying about, and quirking an eyebrow at the sight of there being significantly more, Kokona decided to go up the staircase, towards her room.

Upon entering, Kokona felt little need to turn on the light, instead looking towards her bed.

The sight of it brought a wave of cold to go through her body.

She walked to the edge of the bed, looking around its perimeter.

Where was it?

She looked under both sides of the bed, yet didn't find it.

She looked all around the room, but couldn't find it anywhere, even after turning on her light.

Where had the envelope gone?

Even if 5,000 yen wasn't very much, it would be useful for her.

After checking the time after several minutes, Kokona quickly gave up her search for the 5,000 yen, instead choosing to change her clothes to get ready to meet her client, practically rushing out of the door minutes later, failing to notice that her envelope lay in the dark hallway, torn apart, with only the letter that came with it being there, the money long gone before she even originally arrived home for the day.

* * *

When she arrived at the same area as the night before, Kokona felt much calmer than she had twenty four hours prior to then.

They had never agreed to a specific time, but she managed to arrive at the same time as before, a few minutes early in fact.

Upon her arrival, she found something that surprised her.

Standing a block away from the hotel stood the man she'd been helping for all this time, faced away from her as he talked to someone else.

She could faintly hear his voice as she approached, rising every so often in anger at the person he spoke to, the distance closing between him and Kokona at an incredibly slowing pace, Kokona doing this consciously as she studied him.

Her obversations caused her to become confused about two things.

The first thing was the fact that the man seemed empty handed, though Kokona chalked this up to her getting the mental image of all the yen stuffed into a briefcase of some sort.

It was very possible for him to simply be carrying the money in an envelope like before, though Kokona didn't really like the idea of this happening again.

She would prefer it if she could keep the money in a more conspicuous place, or at least somewhere she could remember it more easily, so she wouldn't be in the predicament of the envelope being lost again in the span of a single day.

Her confusion for the first thing was dwarfed in its entirety by the second thing.

Talking to the man, with a visble look that Kokona couldn't discern whether it was anger or irritation, was Kai.

He stood with his arms crossed, not a single sign of the burns he very likely was still suffering from displaying itself in his body language, sans his grit teeth, though this could have just as easily been another sign of his emotional state rather than its physical counterpart.

As she neared, Kokona was able to make out certain parts of the conversation, or argument more-like, that had started between the two.

"... no reason for you to be this nosy. This is a private matter." The man said, in apparent anger.

Though she was in Kai's peripheral vision, he didn't seem to notice her.

"It WOULD be a private matter if it didn't involve any of my friends." Kai said, his tone filled with a subdued anger, despite his overall calm voice.

"Did your "friend" ask you to get yourself involved?" The man held his hip.

"No. But that's besides the point." Kai said, his hands' grip tightening around his arms.

"No," the man insisted fervently, "You have a problem with worrying about other people's issues too much. Again, this isn't any of your business, so you shouldn't be here to begin with."

He decided to take a look around himself, and Kokona instinctively hid behind the corner of the building the two males stood in front of, managing to get out of sight before she could be seen.

"That doesn't matter." Kai said in response.

Kokona dared to peek around the corner, hearing Kai's voice raising itself, though not loud enough to truly be considered a yell.

"You're obviously making the wrong decision by being here. Just how long have you been doing this?"

As she listened to Kai speaking, she imagined that the part of the street she was standing in having no lights was the primary cause for why they hadn't noticed her.

Despite this, she couldn't help wondering a few things.

Why was Kai asking that?

What had that man told him?

Again, said man remained cagey about details.

"That isn't any of your business." He seemed to grow more and more irritated with every few words.

"Whose business is it then?" Kai asked, scorn within his gaze as he did, arms uncrossing themselves as he spread his hands. "Your wife doesn't seem to know what's going on, and seeing as how no one else really even knows you that well, who else should this role fall to?"

"No one." He almost growled in response. "The only reason I ever got involved with you was because I thought you, of all people, would understand me."

Kai blinked at this, surprise taking his features.

"What?"

"You don't have any right to criticize me for what I'm doing." He continued, saying this in a voice that was several times calmer than before, composure regained as if in exchange for Kai losing his own. "Seeing as how you've done much worse than things like this, can you honestly say that isn't the truth?"

Kai's expression darkened at this, and the control he seemed to have over his anger faltered.

"No, you aren't wrong." His voice shook as he spoke, reluctance heavily meshing with it, his eyes growing somewhat distant as he looked down, "I HAVE done worse..."

"Then shouldn't I be the one criticizing you? After all, I'm at least helping her by doing this. What about you?" His voice became scornful now. "Can you say you actually helped anyone with the things you've done?"

Kai met his eyes again, and the shakiness receded, replaced by anger.

"Do you think the things that I've done wrong make you any more right?" Kai narrowed his eyes at him. "It doesn't matter if it makes me a hypocrite or not if I'm telling you that this is wrong. What I'm saying and doing right now is the best thing I can do in this situation. Hypocrisy be damned, you're the one who's wrong here."

"You say that, but you still haven't answered my question. Have you managed to help anyone in the way I have to her? You act all high and mighty, but beneath all that, you're still just a selfish bastard who acted in his own interests because he was angry."

"I. Said. Hypocrisy. Be. _Damned!_ " Kai snarled at him, fists clenching, him not seeming to care for the looks passerby gave him. "If you REALLY want to say that you're helping someone, don't even TRY comparing what you're doing with me!"

"Why are you getting angry?" Kokona could hear the confident smile conveying its reappearance in the man's voice. "I thought you said you're calmer than you used to be."

"Because no matter how you try justifying it, what you're saying - what you're DOING - just isn't right!"

"What of it? Can't we just agree to disagree on this sort of thing?" He gave another cursory look around, and Kokona did nothing to move from her peeking spot, as she was already well hidden from view.

"This is too important an issue to pretend like it's just some debate." Kai's voice brought his attention back to him. "This is YOUR wife, and MY friends we're talking about here."

Friends?

Kokona wondered who he could've meant, other than her.

"All I want to do is make the story I want to tell as true as the ones you've told. Is that really so wrong of me?"

"In this case, yes." His voice became softer as he looked away. "But even if it wasn't, the stories I've told are much too horrible for anyone to want to have as the truth. And besides that," he looked up at him, "If you want to make your story as true as mine's have been, you'll need to change it. Mine's don't have half the glaring omissions that yours does."

"Are you against this or for this now?" He replied with a laugh.

"I'm still very much against this." Kai said tonelessly. "But if you're going to make your story mirror reality like mine's do, at least have the moral sense not to paint yourself in the right, like some hero."

"It's my story. I'll do what I want with it." He crossed his arms in reply to Kai's words.

"No. It's not just yours. You're affecting more than just yourself by doing this. You can't just ignore how your actions hurt other people."

"Weren't you listening? All I've done is help a girl out. I've done nothing wrong."

"Are you just going to forget about your wife? Where's her place in this story, if you want it to reflect reality so much?"

A pause.

For a moment, Kokona peered more around the corner, wondering if she hadn't heard the man's answer.

He answered him the next second however.

"She has no place in this story." He said simply, though in a solemn tone that implied it to be a confession. "I don't want her in any more of them."

Kai blinked.

"What?"

"I don't want her in any more of my "stories". I want to take her out of them completely." He elaborated, his tone light.

Kai stared at him for a moment.

"But... she's your wife." He said in disbelief. "There shouldn't be any reason for you to want to do that. You still want everything to be true... right?"

"I do." The man brought a hand to his head, "But I've found a better character than that woman to fill in the role I want."

Kai stared at him for a moment more.

"No." Kai shook his head at him in realization for how serious he was, "You're not serious. Tell me you aren't being serious right now."

"I am."

"But this is your wife we're talking about. Do you even know what you're saying? Do you know what you'd be giving up by doing that?"

"I know full well what I'm giving up. That woman you call my wife doesn't have anything. No friends, no family, nothing. When I met her, she was just an impoverished, but beautiful, girl. When I took her in, she was willing to support me in all the things I did, and I loved her for that. But now, she doesn't do that. She isn't as beautiful as she once was either. A person like that deserves to be omitted from my story, regardless of how much it mirrors real life."

For a moment, Kai looked too dumbstruck to respond.

When he found himself able to concentrate again, he raised a hand to his head and held it to his forehead, him adopting a more stressed out appearance than Kokona imagined him with.

"Tell me," he began with a slow tone, "By "omitting" her, what do you plan to do, in the event that you want your "story" to mirror your life completely?"

"Isn't it obvious?" His hands found the inner-regions of his pockets. "I'm going to do it in a legal way. I'll divorce her."

"All because she doesn't look as pretty as she used to, and doesn't submit to you anymore?"

"Yes."

"And what do you expect her to do? Can she even support herself?"

"She had her ways of doing that before. If she does it again or not, I don't care."

"What did she do?"

"She always said she'd protected herself, but it doesn't change the fact that she was in quite a rut when I met her in a brothel. I doubt she'd be accepted back in there though, at this point."

Kai stared in shock once more.

"What is wrong with you?" He asked, his free hand clenching into a tightly shaking fist.

"I have no need for someone like her, so what's the problem?"

He clenched his teeth.

" _Everything._ " He growled through his teeth, so lowly that Kokona barely heard what he said, and could only go off of reading his lips.

"I see." The man said this with a small sigh. "I guess we'll never see eye-to-eye then, as I'd hoped."

"I never want to see eye-to-eye with someone like you." Kai said, glowering at the man before him, before his gaze softened somewhat, the subdued hostility within his tone dropping. "But please, tell me, who did you plan on replacing her with?"

"I think you can already guess who I'm talking about. She's the only reason I'm here now."

Kokona's breath had caught in her throat at how casually he said this.

"What makes you so sure she'll settle for someone like you? I'm not sure if you've noticed, but you aren't exactly the best looking guy I've ever met." Kai said, and the man chuckled to himself darkly.

"You of all people would know." He said, before taking another look around himself. "I want her because she has the kind of personality I want."

"And what would that be?" Kai asked, the subdued anger within his voice returning with a strong vengeance.

"I suppose you could say," he assumed a thinking posture, but his voice grew joyful, excited, just like whenever Kokona did whatever he'd wanted, "She has a bit more resistance, which makes her less predictable, even though I know how to make her stop resisting completely."

Kai gave a bitter smile, but that smile never reached his eyes.

"You say you're divorcing your wife because she doesn't listen, but you're attracted to my friend because she resists more?" His voice, mocking in its questioning nature, became cold the next second. "Make up your mind if you're going to be like this."

"I suppose you could say that I like them a bit more feisty, but not too much so." The man responded after a moment of silence. "If I can control how feisty they are, then I'll settle for them. That's how my wife was, but not anymore. Can you understand me now?"

Kai gave an deep, long, tired sigh.

"I kind of wish I didn't, but yes."

"Just to be sure you do," he inclined his head slightly, "I'm attracted to beautiful women who can put up a measured amount of resistance. My wife doesn't have any of those things, so I don't want her anymore."

"I understand." Kai lowered his hand from his head, looking at the man before him, his voice completely calm now. "I just don't understand why you're telling me this."

"Remember those days we talked in private in my home?" The man said, his voice as calm as Kai's then.

"Yes. What about them?"

"I happened to record everything we said at those times. Every. Last. Thing." He made his sentences short for emphasis, and to Kokona's surprise, she could see Kai's skin lose some of its tan color. "So, in the event that you were to try doing anything, I'll go to the police station with all of the recordings in hand, and tell them everything you've done."

"You... _You_...!" He seemed suddenly at a loss for words, his expression a mixture of emotions.

Surprise, outrage, pain, and, most of all, betrayal showed in a cluster on his face.

"I what?" It was the man's turn to become mocking now, and he crossed his arms. "You might want to watch what you say. Nothing says I can't tell the police now."

Another emotion appeared on Kai's face, one that outshone all the others he conveyed.

Fear.

"But why?" He managed to say, voice raspy. "Why are you going so far for something as stupid as this?"

"I'm only doing what's necessary." He said in a measured tone. "I want to live a good, long life, and I don't need someone like you messing it up for me."

"But you can't do this. After all you'd done for me, what reason would I have to do that?" Kai asked, voice suddenly desperate.

"Don't you remember the fact that you were pretty against me divorcing my wife? Who knows, you may have wanted to do it then. You usually can hide your emotions, yet not well enough for that to be the case here."

Kai stared at him, eyes wide.

"Do you understand now?" The man said, his tone inviting no rebuttal. "Don't interfere with me, and I won't turn you in."

"So that's how it is?" Kai asked, his voice distant.

"Are you still going to interfere, knowing that? If you still want to, I'd advise you think about Sekai before you do so. How do you know she'll be okay, if you're not there to help?"

"She's the only reason you're still alive right now." Kai said, voice still distant as he looked at the man before him.

"Then don't interfere with me, and there won't be any problems."

"There always will be a problem." Kai said, shaking his head. "Because, like it or not, this is still my friend you're talking about. I can't just sit by and let you think this way."

"What is she to you?" The man said. "You haven't even known her a full day."

"My friend." He said, as though this should've been as clear as day. "No matter how long I've known her, that doesn't change that I have to help her."

"How? You aren't helping her at all. At this rate, all you're doing is hurting yourself."

"Because of how this is affecting her outside your wannabe relationship with her." Kai said, anger still remaining amidst his shaking voice. "She doesn't need this kind of crap loaded on her. She's already going through enough as is!"

"Like what?" The man said, voice challenging.

Kai was about to respond, before Kokona's voice caught his attention.

"It's fine Nasir. You don't have to go through any more effort to help me." She said this as she walked forward, into the light, where they could see her.

"Senpai?" Kai said, looking at her in surprise.

"Ah, hello." The man said happily.

She moved to the man's side, wrapping her arms tightly around his, "Don't worry about me. I'll be okay."

"But Senpai, he..."

Though the man gave a glare to him as he said this, the only thing that made Kai trail off was Kokona shaking her head at him.

"I told you, I'll be fine. You've done enough for me as it is. This is something I need to take care of on my own."

"But..." Kai looked at his boss warily, "This guy, he's..."

"I'll be fine." She insisted a third time. "But please, let me handle this."

Kai looked at her for a moment more, then, with a heavy reluctance, sighed in defeat.

"Alright. If that's what you'd like." Kai said, casting a small glare at the man Kokona held onto before turning around slowly. "Just be careful Kokona-senpai. I want things to go well for you. I doubt that will happen if you do everything this guy wants you to."

He walked forward then, head lowered slightly, his form gradually disappearing into darkness.

"He really doesn't know how to keep out of other's business." The man said, through ground teeth.

"Are you angry?" Kokona looked up at him, and meeting her eyes, the man smiled.

"Don't worry about that." He said. "Are you ready?"

"No." Kokona peeled herself away from him, "Do you have all the yen that you promised me?"

He blinked, then nodded, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling two envelopes out, handing them both to Kokona, who took them.

They felt significantly thicker and heavier than what she imagined, yet Kokona, remembering the night before, looked up at the man, "Would you mind it if I checked to see if it's all in here first?"

She searched his expression for the slightest hint of worry, or any other emotion that would betray any chance of him trying to hide anything from her.

Instead, his smile only grew.

"Why?" He leaned closer to her, and recognizing the intent behind his movement, Kokona took a step back to increase the distance between them, dodging the puckered lips he had.

He gave a surprised, embarassed look, but stood back up straight, his expression now a bit troubled.

"Don't you trust me?" He asked her, and Kokona gave him a look that conveyed her answer completely: a look that said "do you honestly think that?".

Acting on the off-chance that he couldn't percieve the meaning behind her face, Kokona spoke flatly, "I didn't want to do the things we did together yesterday. The only reason I did it in the first place was for the money, and you didn't even give me what you promised."

As she reminded herself of the things she'd done, the wave of self-disgust welled up within her again, and she half-lidded her eyes whilst looking away somewhat, not wanting to meet the man's eyes.

"How can I trust you after that?"

He looked somewhat uncomfortable at this.

"I see. I'm sorry about that." He apologized, head bowed slightly.

Kokona almost wanted to say she would forgive him, but alas, the circumstances were too important, and the consequences too strong, for her to be able to believe that she could.

Due to her thoughts not being conveyed to him, the man asked of this very thing, and Kokona's throat constricted upon hearing how he worded it.

"Is there any way that you could forgive me, so we could do this again?"

"No." Kokona said flatly.

Before, admittedly, there wasn't a chance.

Now that he'd worded the question like that, he'd managed to solidify her resolve, the things she'd heard he was hoping to do with his wife, and with her, only serving to worsen this.

"What?" The man seemed surprised, and Kokona shook her head for emphasis.

"No. I don't want to do this again." She opened her closed eyes, and stared the man in the eyes, surprised at how firm she sounded. "I told you already, I never wanted to do that again, and I've already decided to stand by what I said before. I never even wanted to do this whole thing anyways, because I was afraid something like this would happen. The money you offered me yesterday, it didn't make it any better. All it did was make me feel worse about myself. And besides that, you're married. So there's no way we could do this again."

"But what if I wasn't..."

He trailed off, in sudden hesitation.

She knew, for all her being, that she wouldn't like the answer, but asked anyways.

""What if you weren't" what?"

"What if I wasn't married?" He asked, some nervousness tinging his voice.

She mentally sighed.

"My answer would be the same. Because you being married isn't the only problem."

"But, what if you married..."

"No." Kokona said abruptly.

"But..."

"No." She said this with a tone that mixed firmness with finality.

But even so, he persisted.

"But you... You need me." He said, tone becoming more composed. "If you don't want to do this anymore because we aren't married, then how will you be able to take care of yourself?" He looked down at the envelopes in her hands. "That money won't last you forever. If you're afraid of this sort of thing happening, you'd have to stop doing this altogether. But you still need some way to sustain yourself, right?"

Kokona sighed outwardly this time.

She suddenly regretted showing gratefulness for what the man used her for, photography-wise, a month prior to then, as ironic as that might have sounded.

At that time, before things had gone too far between them, Kokona felt fairly happy with their near-daily routine.

She felt happy to help the man who claimed to be working on his manga and needed pictures for reference, both for the fact that her unfortunate position of engaging in compensated dating had suddenly turned into a de facto modeling job, and for the fact that she was helping someone in a way other than feeling subconscious about their age.

It had been when they were at the docks, near the local beach, that he'd first asked the question.

"Hey," he said to get her attention, neither knowing each other's names at all, "You seem like a pretty smart person. Why are you doing this kind of work?"

Passerby would have few ways of knowing what he was talking about from how he was wording it on the off-chance they overheard him, though the people making up said passerby were few and far between.

Kokona, who gazed towards the sunset, would look at the man in surprise.

For someone to actually take interest in her personal life, rather than focus on their own, was an unprecedented action among clients.

Granted, this had been the same man who made it a point to compliment her on every occasion that they met, but though this fact lessened the surprise somewhat, Kokona was still surprised nonetheless.

Looking back towards the sunset, Kokona gained a distant look.

Back then, despite her using the word "client" to describe those who engaged in compensated dating with her, she had grown to see this man as a type of co-worker more so than a client.

Their relationship was cordial, with their repeated meetings but lack of sharing basic information about one another reenforcing this.

Seeing no harm in it, Kokona was honest with him.

"I didn't WANT to do this." She admitted to him, a flicker of sadness entering her gaze. "There just wasn't anything else that I could do, and I was pretty desperate after a while."

Her elaboration had come out before she realized it, Kokona immediately reflected, but she believed that manifested itself in a need to talk about her problems.

She'd never been without a friend who could lend a listening ear, but she kept this _particular_ secret to herself because she lacked the confidence in her friends that she needed that they wouldn't feel like she was a burden to them, whether they'd admit it to anyone, even themselves, or not.

It had occurred to Kokona to try asking her friends for money, but she didn't want to risk them knowing about her family problems.

Thus, with no job, the main provider of wealth being an alcoholic, the above option locked out by choice, and the days she could go on living without a normal amount of food consumption, this was the way her life had ended.

"Why desperate? Is there something you're trying to buy?"

She almost wanted to laugh at that.

This level of desperation would never warrant itself in her wanting to buy something, she thought then.

"No." Kokona shook her head, "It isn't something I want to buy. It's something more important than that."

Like having a roof over her head at night, she added mentally.

"I see. Don't you ever want to find something else to do?"

"I always do." Kokona said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Do you think I enjoy this kind of thing?"

She realized a second too late how this might have come out wrong, as she actually enjoyed this person's appointments several times more so than others.

But the man showed no sign of offense.

"So you're only in it because you need the money that much?"

His voice was curious, and simply that.

"Well, yeah." She looked up at the sky in thought, choosing then to amend her words. "But this isn't such a bad way of going about this. I like the idea of looking like I'm a modeler A LOT better than I like the idea of going on a compensated date. To be honest, the only time I've actually enjoyed doing this kind of thing was when I'm helping you out."

"Really?" His tone was still curious, and Kokona returned her gaze to the sunset.

"Yes." She then looked over at him, smiling warmly at him, "Because of this, I'm able to take care of me and my dad. So I guess I have you to thank, for helping me through this like you have."

He looked surprised at this, and holding her smile up at him for a moment, Kokona only dropped it when a flash from the camera appeared, her blinking in surprise.

"Sorry," he said, though he sounded anything but, "That smile you just had looked like it'd make for a great shot, so I had to take the chance before it was too late."

Looking down at his camera, his smile dropped just as quickly as it'd grown mischievously innocent.

"But it's a shame though. I didn't even get a good shot. And it was such a beautiful smile too."

Kokona's smile grew again, and she laughed lightly at him.

"Well, thanks for the compliment. I can try to smile again if you'd like."

"I'm not sure if it'll be as heartfelt, but if you could, I'd like you to try." He smiled back at her encouragingly.

She had grown, in a sense, closer to him after this.

Their cordial relationship grew into something of a circumstancial friendship, the man becoming more willing to joke around with her than he was before, and her likewise becoming less tense around him.

It was genuinely saddening, to think of just how greatly her liking for the man standing before her now, in the present, had taken a giant nosedive over the course of two days.

"Maybe, but this has gone too far." Kokona closed her eyes. "You're right. If I want to keep this from happening again, I need to stop this now. So that's exactly what I'm going to do."

She then turned to her left, in the direction she'd come from.

The direction leading her to home.

His hand grasped her arm before she could take the first step however.

"But you won't have to worry about that kind of thing anymore if you're with me. You can't be judged for doing this sort of thing with your husband, right?"

His voice would seem calm and reasoning to all but the greatest of obsevers.

Within the man's tone was a minor hint of desperation.

"You really want me to marry you?" Kokona's voice was calm, but she didn't look back at him.

"Yes, I do." His grip on her arm tigthened ever so slightly, but it didn't hurt Kokona at all.

She breathed in slowly through her nose, then quickly out of her mouth, before turning to look at him, barely able to keep her emotion of anger in check.

"Say my name then."

The order was simple, yes.

But deep down in her gut, Kokona knew it was impossible for him to do so.

As she expected, the man's expression shifted from hope to that of strong surprise.

"What?"

This reaction alone was enough to give Kokona the appropiate ammunition she needed.

"Say. My. Name." Kokona said, voice calm.

He seemed to have a harder time trying to keep a straight face rather than racking his brain for memory of such a simple thing.

"See? You don't even know it." Kokona looked away, eyes narrowing into a scowl. "I barely know the first thing about you. How can you expect me to marry you just because you can take care of me? Do you really think I'm that shallow a person?"

"No!" He said quickly. "I just thought that you'd change your mind if I told you that."

"There's no way that would change my mind!" She yelled back at him, and behind the anger in her eyes, there was a bit of hurt. "If I'm going to be married, I want it to be a good relationship that I'm going into. I want to have a relationship a hell of a lot less crude than this one."

Before she knew it, she was flying into a rage.

"If I'm going to be married, I want it to be with someone I actually love on a deeper level than just co-workers or friendship, and that loves me back. Even if that ends up being too much to ask for, that's my standard! And YOU shouldn't settle for a relationship like this either!" She turned around fully, facing him, his grip on her arm weakening in surprise. "If you base your marriage off of something like money, you'll just end up being lonely and miserable at the end of your life! Money can help with a lot of material things, but it can't help something that isn't superficial like marriage! So before you go around proposing to the first girl you have a _good old time_ with, think about your relationship with her with your BRAIN instead of your TINY DICK!"

She jerked her arm out of his grasp, and turned around, walking away in a huff, uncaring for the pain her burns caused to her feet as she stalked away from him.

The man gave no more effort to his proposal, him looking too shocked and surprised at her back as she walked away.

Then there came the sound of muffled laughter behind him, and looking towards the source of it, the man narrowed his eyes at the sight of Kai, who had never truly left, holding his hand over his mouth as he struggled not to laugh, as was plainly obvious, at him, walking past him and behind Kokona.

The man sighed to himself, mentally wishing that Kai wasn't under a contract that barred the man from putting him into serious trouble for laughing at how poorly his attempt ended.

"Two more years and you're screwed." He muttered under his breath, turning around and walking away, in the opposite direction of the two who'd just left.

In his mind, he attributed the way things had gone to be Kai's fault, embarassment not letting him see reason.

* * *

For much of the walk home, Kokona was too angry to care to even look inside the envelopes clutched tightly within her hands.

In the meantime of this, Kai's laughter had died a long time ago, and after several blocks of walking in a rather poorly lit street, he called out to her with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"Kokona-senpai." He called, and the girl stopped dead in her tracks, turning back to look back at him.

Due to the only lights being that of the full moon however, she couldn't see him all that well.

"Who are you?"

"It's your friend Nasir, Kai." He said with a smile.

"Nasir?" Her tone became less tense after this, becoming more relieved than anything.

"Yup." He walked towards her, smiling all the while, tone light. "You shouldn't be walking around alone at this time of night."

"What's your excuse then?" Kokona said as he reached her side, and she saw his smiling face as he passed her, walking alongside him. "You're a year younger than I am, so you're worse than I am in that regard."

"I can't exactly leave you alone out here." His smile dropped as he said these words, his eyes scanning their surroundings warily.

"Why not?"

"You mean BESIDES the obvious fact that someone seems out to get you?"

Kokona blinked, then remembered the cause of her suffering feet and her falling the day before.

Within her festered surprise at his mentioning it, but she assumed it was fine to talk about the matter, as they were alone.

"It's just not safe to do this sort of thing. God only knows what could be waiting for anyone around here." He took a cautious look at his surroundings, the neighborhood much more eerie now that night had fallen.

"What do you plan on doing then? You have to go home too."

"I told you, you're my friend. And as your friend, I should be willing to lay down my life for you."

She almost wouldn't have taken him seriously, had it not been for his little escapade of saving her a few hours prior to then, for how lightly he spoke of the issue, as though he were talking the sky being clear that night.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure Christ didn't mean for you to literally lay down your life for me."

"And that is where you're wrong." He said automatically. "He died on the same kind of death as two thieves for the people he loved, and he said for his followers to love his friends as much as he loved them. That should make it clear that this should be second nature to me."

Kokona sighed, "Are you sure he didn't mean just your Christian friends?"

"No, he said to love your friends as he did. There's no need to complicate it."

"When it's me you're laying your life down for, I feel the need to. At this point getting killed would probably be a load off my back." She said this much too casually than she would've preferred, and Kai reacted appropiately.

"But what if I don't want you to die?"

Or perhaps semi-appropiately, given his response had been a mixture of concern and curiosity instead of just the former.

"Why does it matter so much to you?" Kokona asked, looking up at him. "We don't even know each other that well. You can barely call us aquaintances, much less friends."

He seemed unsurprised at this, him smiling even.

"Yeah, I know. But can't you say I've lived up to that claim of friendship?"

"You have. It'd just be better if you chose someone else."

"Well, I chose you, so you can either accept it happily, or mope around and accept it, because I'm not taking it back, and I doubt I'm leaving any time soon."

"The only reason I haven't accepted it is because this makes no sense to me." Kokona explained exasperatedly. "I mean, why would you want to help me? Don't you think whoever's after me will hurt you too if you stick around me too much?"

"I'm fully aware of the dangers, and I'm sticking with you. And it might not mean much to them, but with me at least you aren't walking alone in the dark. You weren't even looking around to see if you were safe the entire way here."

"How do you know?" Kokona asked, an edge to her voice.

"I suppose you could suffice it to say I was following you all the way here to be sure you were safe."

"I thought you left when I asked you to."

"No, I just walked into the darkness and just stopped where you guys couldn't see me." His memory of the past time brought his dropped smile back full force. "And I cannot say I regret being paranoid or hypocritical enough to eavesdrop."

"Stalking, more like." Kokona deadpanned. "What was the point of you sticking around then?"

"Because, on the off chance that he pressured you into doing the same things as yesterday, I wanted to be there to back you up in the case that you didn't want to."

Kokona's heart stopped at this.

Did he know...?

Had that man told him?

"Looks like he was right. You're more resistant than he said. I didn't even need to be there for you."

Kokona glared lightly at him, but this only served to make his smile broaden.

"What do you think I am? Some wishy-washy girl who's weak in the knees?"

"No, I think you're a teenage girl with problems that need sorting out, but you don't know how to go about most of them."

His dream of her suicide attempt, along with the few details he knew about the people around Kokona, fueled this response out of him.

Despite him being right, Kokona's glare deepened.

"What makes you so sure?"

He gave a moment of thought.

"I COULD be wrong," he asserted this fact upfront, "But if I guessed right, you haven't told anyone about how we met, have you?"

"No."

"And yet you still came to school again, knowing someone pushed you off the roof?"

"Yes." Kokona had already thought of the possibility of the would-be killer, but she decided to go to school simply because of the post that brought her current friendships into question.

"Why would you go to school, knowing that someone there tried to kill you? Wouldn't it have been a better idea to just stay home and tell your parents or something?"

"I came so I could explain what I was doing yesterday to my friends. Until, of course, YOU threw a wretch in that plan."

The irritation in her voice masked a hidden gratefulness for him being there, caused by his admittedly understandable question, simply due to Kokona being poor at recieving criticism.

"Well, sorry for that. Remind me not to tell your friends my business to help you out again."

At this, Kokona sighed, finding it well within herself to believe that he'd done that for her.

"No, I should be apologizing. You've done nothing but try to help me since we've met, and I've barely shown you how grateful I am for that." Kokona said remorsefully.

He looked up in the sky, in thought, before saying, ""Do to others as you would have them do to you," and, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves," are two things the Bible teaches. Since I said you were my friend, I would naturally want my friend to stick up for me when others are putting me down or accusing me of doing something wrong without anything backing it up, other than someone who keeps to herself saying it and taking pictures. In the same vein, while I know I don't like getting lectured for my wrongdoings, I would rather that than become unrepentent in what I've done wrong."

It took Kokona a moment to realize he was talking about the verbal hostility he'd shown to the members of her group, sans Saki, during which he kept speaking.

"And, if I were to apologize for something I did wrong, I'd definitely want to be forgiven for it. I mean, who doesn't?" Lowering his gaze to look before him, he continued. "Other than that, since I should value you more than myself, I should be willing to do things that I'd normally prefer not to."

Kokona looked down at his feet, his shoes covering the burns that were certainly still there.

"You're a good person." She said this without thinking, knowing within herself this had to be true.

"No, I'm not." He denied firmly, but not vehemently. "As far as I see it, I'm just repaying my debt to Christ to go to heaven. If it weren't for Him, I'd seem like a much more horrible person than I do now."

"How are you so sure?"

His expression visibly darkened at the past events he apparently recalled as he spoke, "I've done... many terrible, terrible things in my life. And... I sometimes get this want to do those things again, despite me converting to Christianity."

For a moment, Kokona stared in surprise at him, his voice revealing that it took a large deal of effort to admit even this.

"I'm sure that should be normal." Kokona said, trying to lighten his mood. "I mean, we all get tempted to do bad things, don't we?"

"Yes, but that doesn't make it any better." Kai closed his eyes. "I have to resist temptations, but I just wish that some of them weren't so strong or frequent. It doesn't help that I don't always follow through with resisting."

"Do you ever talk to someone about this?"

Opening his eyes, he shook his head, "No. Only you."

"Do you think you could? I'm not sure I'm the right person you should talk about this with."

"I know I should, but it's just the matter of following through that's the problem." He said this, as though knowing his feelings were wrong in some way.

"Then... Why are you telling ME this?"

"I..."

Kai, like with the man before, suddenly seemed to at a loss for what to say.

"I... don't know. It's just that you were asking about me and I just started talking without thinking..."

He held his head, sighing heavily, as though somewhat ashamed of himself, and whether this was for his past mistakes or for telling her, although vaguely, about them, Kokona didn't know.

She looked away a bit awkwardly, then stepped a bit closer to him, reaching her right arm up and wrapping it around him, pulling him into her.

At her touch, she felt him flinch ever so slightly, but he didn't do anything other than this, Kokona feeling him looking down at her, her not meeting his eyes.

"You said, "do to others as you would have them do to you," right?" Her voice wasn't any less awkward than her expression.

"Well... yeah, but... I thought you weren't..."

"I'm not Christian, no." Kokona said. "Frankly, I barely know anything about Christianity, besides what you've told me. But since you put what you've done for me on those terms, then I'll do the same for you." After saying this, she found it within herself to look up at him, meeting his eyes. "So, since I consider you my friend, right now I'm just doing what I'd want my friend to do for me in this situation."

Kai's eyes widened, surprise lighting up his dark expression.

Then his surprise faded from his expression into nothing, his lips curving into a warm smile.

"Thank you, Kokona-senpai."

Kokona couldn't help returning his smile, and Kai wrapped his arm around her as well, them doing their awkward embrace for a few seconds more as they continued to walk, them in the middle of the first streetlight they'd passed for the entire time they'd entered the neighborhood when it ended.

* * *

When they reached Kokona's home, they had long since separated from one another, but the silence between them was evident the entire way.

Kokona felt an odd comfort about the silence, but didn't comment on it.

Kai looked around himself every few minutes to make sure they were alone, but, based on his lack of reaction at any time, Kokona thought it safe to assume all was well.

Upon arriving there, Kokona smiled towards Kai, stopping in her tracks as she spoke for the first time since their embrace, "Thanks for walking me home."

"No problem." Kai said after stopping a second after she did, looking back at her and returning the smile.

"Could I ask you something before I go inside though?" Kokona's tone shifted into one a more serious one then.

Curiosity flickered into his expression once he saw this, "Sure, what?"

"Did that guy tell you what we did together? Your boss, I mean."

"Oh," Kai crossed his arms, thinking for a moment, "In a way you could say that."

"What do you mean?"

"After the little bout of anger I had before with your friends, I decided to ask my dear old boss about the matter myself so I could get the facts straight about what he was doing with you. He did say that he made a mistake that he was hoping to fix a couple of days ago, but he didn't tell me anything until I made it clear to him that I saw a picture of him going into a love hotel with you. I never said it was you by name, but it's pretty obvious right about now that he knew exactly who I was talking about. He didn't even try hiding what he did after that. He just said he had been going on compensated dates with a girl and had gone into the love hotel with her one night. He didn't elaborate on exactly what you guys did, and I got the feeling that I didn't want to know. I had a good idea of what you guys did for most of the dates though."

"Oh. I see." Kokona said this flatly, looking at him curiously. "So... you knew I'd been taking part in compensated dating?"

"Yes. I never really brought it up because you doing that is essentially your choice. But, based on what you said to Soichirou tonight, I doubt you'll be doing much dating anymore, am I right?"

"No. With the money he's given me, I think I should be fine long enough to find a job other than that." Kokona looked down at orange pockets in her hands for emphasis.

Kai smiled, "Good. We wouldn't want a repeat of what happened today after all."

"Agreed." Kokona sighed tiredly. "But the reason I'm asking is because I want to know," she met his curious eyes, "Are you really sure you want to be my friend?"

"Yes." He said without thinking. "Even if I DO feel like this friendship hasn't gotten off to the best start for either of us, I'm sure tomorrow won't be as bad."

"Yup." Kokona said, mentally sighing at the truth behind his words, the nature of today being her primary reason for asking.

In the matter of one day since becoming her self-proclaimed friend, Kai had caused her friends to feel a large deal of guilt towards their actions, had gone to great lengths to try discerning what had happened for the situation with his boss and Kokona to reach the level it had, forsaken his own club activities in favor of spectating her's because he was worried about her psyche, only to watch as someone tied her up and set her on fire, stepped into the fire himself to save her before saving himself, had beaten himself up over the fact that he hesitated to do the last thing, made something of a friendship with her friends after yelling at them a few hours prior, took a long walk with what Kokona could only imagine was constant pains from simply walking, as she'd experienced, had somehow found himself arguing with his boss over how the older man was treating the subject they were talking about, and had now found it within himself to walk her home, with the burns more likely than not still hurting him.

All of these things because he cared just that much.

She could only simply agree and hope that tomorrow wouldn't be as eventful an ordeal to go through, both for her and for him especially.

This was probably the worst idea of a first impression Kokona had ever given to anyone, though she guessed she couldn't hope for much of a better one in how Kai had reacted to the entire thing.

Realizing this, Kokona added her thanks as an afterthought, "But I can rest easy, thanks to you. I'm sorry that you had to go through everything you had to because of me."

"It's fine. Do you want to make it up to me though?" Kai smiled at her, and for a split second feared that he would ask for something that'd put her in a bad position.

She could only imagine that he looked at her differently now that he knew of her job's (former job's, Kokona amended) nature.

She wasn't without her experience in meeting guys who seemed nice but were genuinely jerks underneath that.

Despite this, she still responded normally.

"Yes, but... how?"

"Could I give you a hug?"

Kokona blinked, surprised.

"That's it?"

"Yes. Could I?" He tilted his head, "If you're the kind of person who's sensitive about people touching you, I can understand, but I didn't get that impression from you."

"No, I'm not." Kokona shook her head, surprised expression becoming a smile, "And yes, you can give me a hug."

He smiled, then closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her, Kokona responding in kind.

Eyes closed, with his hand grazing against her scalp lightly, Kai breathed a short sigh of what Kokona could only assume was relief.

"I'm glad you're okay, Kokona-senpai." He said this softly, and Kokona couldn't help smiling as his body relaxed with this, as though his hugging her reaffirmed his knowledge that she was safe.

"Thank you for everything today." Kokona said in reply, and he held her for a moment more before he started moving away from her, Kokona unwrapping her arms from him as he did this to her, casting down a warm smile to her one more time.

"It's no problem." He said, and she nodded.

She then turned to look towards her house, and Kokona's smile dropped.

She hesitated for a moment, then turned around, looking at Kai.

"Could I ask you to do me a favor?"

"Yeah, sure, what is it?"

"Can I trust you not to look into this," Kokona lifted up one of the two envelopes for emphasis, "But keep it in a safe place for me, until I ask for it back?"

He looked at the envelope with interest, but nodded all the same.

"I'm guessing I shouldn't ask what's inside, should I?"

"I guess it won't do any harm." Kokona looked at the envelope, "This is something your boss promised me yesterday, but didn't give me until today. He said he'd pay me 500,000 yen for me to go to the hotel with him again, but he only gave me 5,000 yen and a note last time. So using basic math, there should be 495,000 yen between these two things."

"Oh." Kai blinked. "Are... you sure you don't want to just keep that money to yourself?"

"Well, somehow, I left the first 5,000 on my bed yesterday, yet when I first got home today, it was nowhere to be seen. So unless my memory's getting messed up, someone probably took it."

"Who would steal from you? Do you have a sibling or something?"

"No, it's just me and my dad. My mom died a while back, so it's just us."

Kai blinked again.

"Sorry to hear that. My condolences."

"Thank you." Kokona crossed her arms, glad for the night concealing the source of her suddenly stinging eyes. "But the point is, it was probably him. He's been having it a bit rough since Mom died, so it might have been him."

"Why would he steal your money because of that?"

"He's... coping with it right now. Since his coping methods requires a lot of money, I have the _wonderful_ honor of having to chip in. Since his priorities are a bit skewed right now though, I don't really want to trust him with all of the money right now."

Kai looked at the house, as though in thought, but nodded all the same.

"So, what? Should I take one envelope and you take the other?"

"Well... kind of." Kokona then opened one envelope after handing one to Kai, it filled, to her subconscious relief, with several yen notes, and pulled them out, handing them to Kai as he watched, him putting them inside the other envelope at her behest.

When she was finished, Kai's envelope looked thoroughly stuffed, but she was happy with herself.

"Alright, remember to keep that thing safe, alright?" Kokona said whilst turning around, walking towards her home.

"Yes," Kai said in a surprised tone, watching her as she reached her door, before adding, as an afterthough, "Good night."

She looked back at him, and in the faint moonlight, Kai could see her smiling as she replied, "Good night."

Then she entered her house, sighing softly to herself in tiredness.

Home at last, she thought to herself, upon the door closing behind her.

She could only hope she could get a decent, good night's rest tonight.

* * *

 **A/N: Longest chapter yet. Sans this Author's Note, there's roughly 15,000 words here on it's own.**

 **Alright then, the second day of this rival week has passed.**

 **During the time I take to post a new chapter however, I'll be busying myself with transferring this story to the Yandere Simulator archive.**

 **It's a bit weird though. If _this_ isn't the Yandere Simulator fandom archive, then just what has everyone who's been posting here been posting for?**

 **Another weird thing about the Yandere Simulator fanfiction archive is that, while possible filtering options for characters include people like Pippi Osu and Budo Masuta, Osana Naijimi isn't a filter option yet. That might change in the future, but right now it's kind of weird considering she's supposed to be the first rival and everything.**


	10. Last Chapter

The boy blinked in surprise at the person standing in front of him.

"W- _What_?" He exclaimed, eyes widened.

Even as the elder of the two answered, he felt a vertigo wash through his brain, and he reached for his skull as the other boy, Shin, eyed him strangely.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes." Kai replied, him feeling an awful lot more detached from his own body as compared to what he was used to.

With this fact came a realization that could be embodied in three words.

 _I'm dreaming again._

* * *

Immediately, Kai's eyes flew open, and he looked around himself.

Instead of standing in the Occult Club, he was laying down in his bed.

It was well within the middle of the night still from what he could tell from a glance to his right, towards the window, the only lights shining there being the artificial ones shining there outside.

Sighing softly to himself, he groaned as he pulled himself into a sitting position, getting off the bed and to his feet, walking out of his room and into the hallway, his roommate not being roused by his departure from the room, Sekai resting peacefully in her spot next to where he was sleeping.

For a moment, he wanted to ask God why He'd felt the need to separate the day from night, and not just keep world in some sort of eternal twilight or nighttime, but then he cast this thought aside, remembering what he had to do.

Thrusting his palm into his forehead upon realizing his forgetfulness, Kai sighed.

" _Darn it me, you should've warned her sooner._ " He said angrily to himself in English.

He had to tell his boss' wife about her potential living arrangements, so she'd at least be somewhat prepared for the worst.

Glancing towards his living room, Kai saw the couch sitting there that could be unfolded into a bed, and wondered for a moment if the woman could've stayed there.

Thinking this, Kai decided that he'd have to talk it over with Sekai first before he could make such a decision, and instead opted to try calling the likely soon to-be ex-spouse's cell phone, only to stop when he realized how early it was.

It was hardly advisable to try calling ahead to talk to someone when they were very likely still asleep, Kai thought as he put his phone back in his home-attire pants.

He didn't like the idea of waiting on something like giving someone he considered a close friend a warning, but, as he reasoned with himself, it was his fault for not thinking to do so on the way back to or from Kokona's house.

He'd have to tell her in the morning, he decided, dragging his tired feet towards his bed for the night.

* * *

Hours later, just before daybreak, one could find Ayano walking rather aimlessly around her Senpai's neighborhood, looking intently into her phone's screen, as the conversation of texts involved something she deemed immediately needed.

 **Why do you want to know her address?**

Info-chan, after questioning why Ayano tried contacting her so late in the night, asked this question.

 _I want to get her out of the picture. Since pushing her off a rooftop and setting her on fire obviously didn't work, I want to use a more surefire method._

 **And what is that exactly?**

 _The Naijimi-method._

A minute of silence passed her by before a response came, in which Ayano imagined Info-chan was trying to discern what she meant by that.

 **Brutally stabbing her to death?**

She had come close.

 _In a manner of speaking, yes._

 **Quick question, and I know it might seem redundant to ask, considering you're pretty much an emotionless husk of a human being, but you weren't feeling irate at all when you killed Osana, were you?**

Ayano didn't even need to think about her answer before she answered.

 _I was irate from the moment I figured out she was trying to steal Senpai away from me._

The memory of the time she'd killed Osana sent a wave of sudden calmness through her.

 _I didn't feel any better until after I was stabbing her again and again. It just felt so relieving, to have the object of my anger suffering and eventually dying under me, with me knowing nothing would separate me from Senpai anymore._

 **Creepy.  
Anyways, I'm only asking because, usually, when a person's stabbing someone repeatedly when they're too angry, they end up cutting themselves on the bottom corner of the knife they're using, and that sometimes clues police in on who murdered someone.**

Ayano looked at her hands immediately, searching for any sign of cut marks, yet she miraculously found none.

Info-chan hadn't been finished with her thoughts however, as Ayano's phone rumbled in sync with her receiving a message from the info broker.

 **I guess I can understand why they thought your Senpai was the most likely candidate, since no one else was so close to her to have stabbed her so many times while on school grounds.**

 _There's no need to talk about it anymore. Naijimi's dead, and we were both happy for a while._

 **Oh no, YOU were happy for a while.  
I'm still happy about that.**

 _Wonderful.  
Now, could you tell me what Kokona's address is?_

 **You can't be serious about that?**

 _I've already killed two people. How serious do you think I am?_

 **I'm just surprised by how far you're trying to take this.  
You're already guilty of three murders, two attempted murders, and arson. Now you want to add home invasion and ANOTHER murder on top of all of that?**

 _It wouldn't be the first time I broke into someone's house._

 **Seriously?**

 _Yes. I once broke into Senpai's house and stole his toothbrush without anyone noticing._

As she texted this message, Ayano felt her body shudder ever so slightly in delight at the memory of her brushing her teeth with her Senpai's toothbrush, a profuse blush coming to her cheeks.

It was almost like tongue-kissing her Senpai, she thought.

 **I see. Then I was wrong.**

As Ayano pondered what Info-chan meant, a new text came in.

 **You're guilty of three murders, two attempted ones, arson, home invasion, and theft.**

 _When Senpai becomes mine what's his will be mine, and what's mine will be his._

Ayano placed her free hand over her heart as she thought this, her heart thumping strangely, yet nicely, at the thought of her Senpai being hers.

The strange euphoria she felt was ruined as Info-chan gave a response.

 **Perhaps. But until then, it's still theft.  
Are you SURE you want her address?**

 _Positive._

 **You'd be willing to break into her house, and potentially kill everyone in there for being a possible witness?**

 _If it's for Senpai, then the answer's automatically going to be yes._

A moment passed her by.

 **Then you'll need to aquire 200 panty shots.**

Ayano blinked.

 _Why so many?_

 **This is delicate information we're talking about here. Even I know where to lay some boundaries down.  
Sure, I'm willing to put those boundaries down when needed, but that doesn't mean I don't have them.**

 _You're worse than me then._

 **That's debatable. I know that you're a monster, while I'm a human.  
I'm frankly not sure which one of us is worse.**

 _I wish I could care about the distinction.  
Why should it be 200 panty shots though? It's hard enough for me to get a few here and there without getting caught in the act.  
And we don't even know if I have enough time for me to get all of those before Haruka steals Senpai away from me._

 **For a serial killer whose willing to murder for someone, you don't have much faith in your chances of getting your Senpai, do you Yan-chan?**

 _I do. He just doesn't know what he's doing to himself by getting close to other people._

 **Whatever you say.  
Anyways, I set the bar that high because I honestly don't want you to break into someone's house just to kill them.  
There's no fun in something like that.**

Ayano sighed.

 _I'll find some other way to get rid of her then._

She walked out of the neighborhood then, only after stopping to look up at her Senpai's room window before leaving.

* * *

A genuinely tired look was on Kokona's face as she emerged from her house that morning, rubbing her right eye socket with the palm of her hand as she walked out of her front yard, a wince reaching her face with every step.

It took her a moment to register the sound of someone speaking nearby, but upon her walking out into the street, Kokona lowered her hand from her right eye, eyes widening in surprise when she saw who was there.

An equally tired looking Kai stood there, his phone pressed against his ear as he spoke into it, the slightly worried look he had on his face dissipating for a moment when he'd realized Kokona had come outside.

He smiled and waved at her briefly before returning to his call, the small smile dropping as he kept talking to the person on the other end.

"I understand that this is hard to believe, especially with how long you've lived there, but it's really not safe for you there."

He listened for a few moments more, him looking up towards the sky.

"I understand Kuroko. I honestly wish this wasn't how things were, but the everything's just going to get worse if you don't do anything now. At least this way you can get ready without him in the way."

A moment of listening more, and he nodded faintly, "Yes, I've talked this out with Sekai. We both agreed this was the best thing to do. I'm sorry we made that decision without your input, but as far as I see it, there aren't many other solutions, or at least ones that are actually good."

A moment once again passed, and he sighed.

"Don't blame her for this. She had no idea at the time, and I'm very certain she won't be making that same mistake knowingly," he glanced over at Kokona as he said this, who had been staring blankly at him for a good while, "Besides, I know her personally. I know she wouldn't do that again."

Kuroko's apparent response made him sigh.

"Please, we can't afford to waste any more time on this. If I get the chance, I'll be there to talk this out completely. But the most important thing right now is making sure you get to someplace safe."

Kuroko's response to this made him smile, almost kindly, "Hey, it's no problem. You don't need to apologize. We were already prepared for the chance of us having a guest over for the night. All you need to do is get your things ready."

He nodded again after a moment more, "Alright, stay safe until then."

After saying goodbye, he hung up, then smiled at Kokona whilst putting his phone in his pocket.

"Morning."

"Uh... morning." Kokona said awkwardly. "Nasir, would you mind me asking why you're...?"

"Oh, I was just making preparations for someone to move into my house. It's nothing you need to worry about." He smiled, only for his expression to drop when Kokona shook her head.

"No, I mean... why are you here?"

"Oh." He rubbed the back of his head, then laughed. "I guess that would be the natural question in this situation."

"Were you worried about me?"

"Not really. I just wanted to walk you to school."

"Why?"

"You seem to have a pretty bad knack of people trying to hurt you in some way. I just wanted to support you in the event that it happened again."

"What? What gives you that idea?"

He looked up at the sky in thought for a moment.

"Well, there's someone pushing you off the roof, someone posting something about you compensated dating, someone setting you on fire, and my boss trying to hurt your perspective of what love actually is. Anyone going through all that in two days honestly NEEDS someone to support them."

"Hey, you don't have to worry about that." Kokona's eyes tensed at how casually he mentioned the past events. "You don't have to force yourself into that position. I do have other friends after all."

He gave her an odd look in response, yet as quickly as he gave her that look, he pouted slightly.

"But I want to be in that position." He said this, half to himself.

"Why? It's still hard to wrap my head around the fact that you do. Don't you think it'd be stressful to be the one to support me, after yesterday?"

"Not really. Believe it or not, I've been through so much on a daily basis since coming here that yesterday was like just another Tuesday for me," though he shrugged, his eyes grew wide in realization, and he laughed, "Wait, yesterday WAS Tuesday, wasn't it?"

She laughed faintly at the irony, but still had an overall serious look on her face.

"I don't want to add to your plate if you already have enough to deal with then." Kokona said uncomfortably, eyes finding his legs, no doubt still burned from the day before. "I'd feel bad if I burdened you even more."

The legs moved after a few seconds of silence, carrying him to her, and she looked up a second before his arms wrapped around her snugly, an almost proud smile tugging at his lips.

"Such a wonderful person you are. You're just making me want to support you more. The world needs more people like you."

Kokona didn't hug him back, eying the ground self-consciously, "I don't think you know what you're saying. The world needs less people like me, with the things I've done. It'd probably be better off with more people like you, if yesterday's anything to go by."

He pulled away, smiling still, but shook his head firmly.

"No. The world would definitely be better off with more people like you in it. You're a much better person than I probably could ever be."

"How are you so sure?" She asked this while looking him in the eye, before diverting her gaze as she spoke further. "I mean, you must've figured out the truth about me yesterday, right?"

"About you compensated dating?" Kai asked, gaze curious.

Kokona looked around herself quickly in fear of anyone hearing him, only to glare at him when she confirmed no one was around to listen.

"Yes." She grumbled, looking down again when she realized he looked undaunted by her glare. "But don't say it."

"I can't say you're an awful person just from that. Do you really think otherwise?" He didn't seem too surprised, merely curious.

She met his eyes for a moment more, "Well, yeah. Would you really call someone who..."

She trailed off a second before she said "engaged in compensated dating".

"... who would do something... like "that" a good person?"

"No. Maybe if you were dating someone, then yeah, but otherwise, you're not a bad person for it, you're just... not doing the right thing." He seemed to be a bit stumped about how he wanted to speak his thoughts. "It's like saying you're a bad person for having something to sell to someone, and when you sell it to them, they do something wrong with it."

"But in my case, it's not something that might be put to good use or not." Looking around herself again to see if they were still alone, she continued. "Compensated dating is still a bad thing, all in all."

"Maybe. But you're not in the wrong for doing that unless you genuinely wanted to do it. As far as I can tell, you DIDN'T want to do it, so it doesn't make you a bad person."

"Does it really matter whether I wanted to do it or not?"

"Yes, it does." He rubbed his head. "I guess... think of someone who donated to a charity. If they were donating for the sake of there being a chance it'd help someone out, then they're good people, even if the amount they donate is small. If someone donated it, but they were thinking of only putting up the image of a good person and not because they wanted to help, that makes them a bad person. In this case, you didn't do it because you wanted to, so you're not a bad person for it."

* * *

"I guess. Doing the things I did would make me a bad person in most people's perspectives."

Kai mentally sighed.

"Have times really changed so little in this half of the Asian continent since World War II?" He asked before thinking.

"What? What does that have anything to do with it?"

He crossed his arms, "Have you ever heard of "comfort women"?"

"No. What about them? Do they comfort people?"

He looked away, his expression flickering in anger and changing back to normal so quickly that Kokona thought she'd imagined it.

As he spoke, she soon realized it wasn't directed at her directly.

"Well, during World War II, after this country joined the Axis, it went on a campaign to take over most of Asia."

"I know that much."

"You even know about the Rape of Nanjing?"

A dark look came over Kokona's face as she nodded.

Over the course of two months, Japanese forces had killed hundreds of thousands of unarmed soldiers and civilians, as well as raping seven thousand women.

"I do." She said grimly.

"Well, during that same time, thousands of captured women were stationed in war zones in places called "comfort houses". The point of the comfort houses was for the women there to act as prostitutes for the soldiers who came to them. Since the average number of men they had to demean themselves for was about thirty different men a day, it was only natural that some... side effects from that position would crop themselves up." He sighed softly. "Since any of the women from the comfort houses with an STD were killed upon anyone realizing that was the case for them, they ended up getting killed by the soldiers themselves when the war was ending. The ones who were able to survive ended up being shamed for their actions during the war, even though they were prisoners forced into that position. The reason I'm asking if things really haven't changed since then is because you think doing what you've done makes you a bad person by default in people's eyes. At least from what I understood."

Kokona stared at him for a long time.

"Am I wrong for looking at it that way?"

"I'm... I'm not sure." Kokona crossed her arms. "But... how much do you know about... about what I did with your boss?"

He crossed his arms, then spoke one word, which was enough for Kokona to understand.

"Fornication."

What festered in Kokona wasn't nervousness, nor surprise.

Only a strange emptiness.

"I see." She said flatly.

"But let's look at it this way," Kai said, looking at her calmly, "You're not doing "that" with my boss anymore, right?"

Kokona nodded firmly.

"Then it's fine. You chose to stop being involved from the moment you found out he was married, so you shouldn't worry about that."

Kokona sighed.

"I guess so. It doesn't change the fact that everyone at school knows the truth, after that Fakebook post."

"All the more reason for me to want to be there to support you." Kai smiled at her.

"I'll be fine. You don't have to worry about me."

"So I can't be there to support you if I want?"

"I wouldn't want you to be, no." Kokona said honestly.

This was the genuine truth.

What she said after, however, was only an excuse for what she said before.

"You just started school here. I don't want you get kept out of things because you're trying to support me. You want to make friends, don't you?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her curiously, "Why would I want to be friends with them? I have you, don't I?"

"Yeah." Kokona rolled her eyes, "A girl whose done dumb things because she needs money that's someone else's apparently out to kill. I can't see ANY reason you wouldn't want to have friends other than me."

"I'm glad you understand." Kai said, walking past her.

She watched him as he did this, "I was being sarcastic."

"I know. But you're still right." He stopped, looking back at her with a playful grin, "What reason could there be to want any other friends, when I already have a friend that's a magnet for trouble?"

She couldn't help replicating his joking tone as she held her hips, "I thought you wanted to be my support."

"Yes. And I still want to be. But now I get to rub my support into your worry's face and see the result. So thank you. I've now acheived a new purpose in life." He looked forward, the same playful smile there. "Now, we should be going, shouldn't we?"

Mentally deciding to drop the matter, she walked behind him, "Yeah, we do need to get going."

* * *

It felt incredibly strange to be walking to school with someone else that day, given that Kokona was used to having no one formally accompanying her at such times.

They didn't talk much during the walk there, and though the temptation to try to existed, Kokona didn't feel much of a need to talk for much of the time of silence, as her kohai didn't even seem to feel very uncomfortable with this.

The only thing they talked about came as a result of her asking him, when a minute into the trek to school, Kokona noticed Kai's pensive expression.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a bit troubled." He admitted without thinking.

"About what?"

"Well, since I imagined that my boss' wife didn't know about his actions outside of home, I checked in with her, and she had no idea. So I was just trying to set my house up so that she could move in."

"And you're saying days like yesterday are actually kind of normal for you?"

He sighed softly, almost sadly, "Yes, with all the dangers, twists and turns intact."

Kokona's mind flashed to the memory of the fire yesterday, and surmising that was the "danger" part of his day, she ran the line between skepticism and sympathetic pity.

"Are you sure? Even with the fire yesterday it's still normal?" Kokona looked down at his legs for emphasis.

He nodded grimly, "Yes. The only thing that made that fire yesterday abnormal was me actually getting physically scarred for once."

"You mean... that wasn't the only time your life wasn't in danger?"

The answer was obvious if what he said was true, but she couldn't help asking.

Sure enough, he nodded.

"Yes. The closest I came to getting scarred was when I was following my roommate on a date because of a gut feeling that something was going to go wrong. It did go wrong, but not in the way I expected it."

"What do you mean?"

"At one point her date and a few of his friends decided it'd be fine to try kidnapping her. I managed to keep that from happening, but it was pretty hard to do that between fighting three guys and protecting someone on top of that."

Kokona's eyes widened.

"What? Why would they try to kidnap her?"

He closed his eyes, sighing.

On that night, he could still vividly remember that man and Sekai going into that dark alleyway, despite the latter's opposition to it.

The man and his friends decided to kidnapping her then, but Kai had been there to keep them from doing that.

In the midst of him tackling one man to the ground and desperately trying to push the other two away, Kai made Sekai call the police, her doing so as quickly as possible with his phone as Kai endured the short verbal exchange between himself and the three men, which culminated into a fistfight that had gone very much into the three men's favor.

The reasons for this were obvious and painful to bear.

For starters, they were all older, bigger, and of comparable strength to him individually (he didn't want to imagine how things would've gone if he didn't excercise as regularly as he often did). Adding the pacifist nature of his religion to the equation, and a large deal of pain on his end would obviously be endured before the impulse to fight back rose within him enough to take control.

They hadn't noticed Sekai on the phone, as Kai spoke over her so as to keep them from hearing her, though she herself did her best to hide her actions as she curled up into a ball against a wall.

When the police would eventually arrive, Kai had been beaten up pretty badly, and yet the men's attempts to round up Sekai always ended with him grabbing the would-be kidnapper's foot and yanking them off balance, with the men attempting to flee at the sound of sirens, only to find that both exits were blocked.

His experience of being brought in for questioning brought with it a good deal of relief when he found that Sekai wasn't badly hurt, and that the people he'd been fighting were actually human traffickers who were all arrested.

The latter fact gave less relief and more stress to Sekai however.

The realization must've brought bad memories to her, Kai had thought sadly as he measured her reaction for himself.

Thankfully, being handcuffed for a short duration of time and suffering a few bruises had been the worst of that night for him, at least physically.

He still had to apologize for not following the "turn the other cheek" commandment Christ had given after all.

In the present, Kai shook his head, "It's really not worth knowing. All that matters is that she's safe now."

He only hoped that Sekai would be able to mentally recover soon though, he thought sadly.

The rest of the walk went on in silence, with Kai mentally questioning if God was punishing him for his actions before coming to Japan, or if there was some way it'd help Him in His plan.

He could only assume that keeping some people from dying on a daily basis was becoming a tragic norm for him because of his God.

This assumption therefore fostered the guilt that came to weigh on him from anyone who failed to survive due to his lack of ability.

He mentally sighed fitfully, wondering if there would be any danger awaiting him today.

Upon them arriving at the school, Kokona and Kai would find themselves sitting in the nurse's office, who was in the process of searching for more ointment to treat their legs with.

After sitting on the beds as the pink haired woman instructed them, the nurse would stand over them both, the ointment in hand.

"Now, which one of you wants me to rub this into their skin first? I promise I'll be gentle." She said with a smile to them both, the grimace of pain caused from both of their swollen legs not helping much.

Unbeknownst to any of them, Ayano crawled as quickly and silently as possible through the nurse's office, being wary of where the nurse's attention was given towards.

Dropping this wariness for a split second, Ayano picked up a vile of liquid and a syringe, looking over at the nurse again.

She hadn't noticed.

Smiling, Ayano crawled her way of the nurse's office, setting the two items in her hands inside of strapped bookbag, which hung off her left shoulder, her slipping them into the binder shaped bag and closing the flap, going on about her day normally.

When their ointment had been fully applied, Kai would close the door to the nurse's office after thanking her, him looking at his purple-haired senpai.

"I guess I'll be seeing you later Kokona-senpai."

"Yeah." Kokona nodded, watching his back for a moment as he walked away. "And Nasir?"

Kai stopped, looking back at her curiously.

"My last name's Haruka. You shouldn't be calling me Kokona."

"I know." Kai shrugged. "It just felt strange not to call you that after a while."

"Could you call me the normal way?"

"Okay Haruka-chan." Kai walked forward as though he'd done nothing wrong.

" _Senpai_. Not _chan_."

He couldn't help the mischievous smile coming onto his face at the trace of irritation in her tone.

"I know," he smiled back at her, waving, "I'll see you later, Haruka-senpai."

"Same here." Kokona smiled as well despite herself, her kohai taking off at a running start, her turning around and going to the plaza.

* * *

When Kai would stop running, he would stand before the Occult Club, looking at its doors and wondering if they were open.

Deciding to see for himself, Kai opened the door, thereby seeing it was unlocked, and walked inside, finding Shin standing there reading a book as he stood on the left hand-side of the room, in front of Kai.

"Hey, Higaku-senpai." The new source of light had already caught Shin's attention, but he found himself smiling at newest member of the club. "Sorry again for not coming yesterday."

"It's fine. No harm done." Shin replied calmly.

"Thanks," Kai smiled at him, only for the smile to drop as he surveyed the room, "Did I... miss anything important yesterday?"

"Not especially, no." Shin closed the book he was reading after bookmarking it, putting it back on its book shelf. "We tried to summon a demon again for the club activities, but, as usual, we didn't succeed."

"Oh." He tried to keep the relief out of his voice, which was easy considering he felt nervous still. "What did you do?"

Shin walked around the already lit candles of the room, Kai following behind him awkwardly as he stood in front of the skull on the table beneath one of the pentagram cloths on the wall, Kai noticing for the first time that a knife was driven in the center of its forehead.

The third-year caught his gaze, and holding Kai's eyes, he gave a serious question.

"Do you promise not to tell anyone about this?"

Kai nodded hesitantly.

Seeing this, he looked at the skull, Shin pulling out the knife and showing it to Kai, "We use this ritual knife to draw our own blood for ritual sacrifices. So far, none of them have worked."

The boy blinked in surprise at the person standing in front of him.

"W- _What_?" He exclaimed, eyes widened.

Even as the elder of the two answered, he felt a vertigo wash through his brain, and he reached for his head.

"I know it may seem strange," Shin had been saying, "But if we want to summon a demon, we have to make sacrifices."

At the sight of Kai trying to shake the dizziness out of his head however, he eyed him strangely.

"Are you okay?" He asked slowly.

"Y-Yes." Kai replied, nodding.

Within his brain came the three words of "I'm dreaming again" before he could stop it, and he sighed, shaking his head to clear it.

"I'm fine." He said, more clear and firmly this time.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." He sighed. "It's something I've been wanting to ask about since I joined, but I'm not sure you'd believe me if I asked about it now."

Looking at the ritual knife, Kai lifted his hand to it, "May I see it?"

Shin nodded, turning his hand to give it to him, dropping the handle in the palm of Kai's hand.

Something was wrong however.

A split-second before it landed, a strange dark mist appeared between his hand and the handle.

Blinking at the sight, Kai shook his head, looking up at Shin, about to ask if he'd seen the mist too, only to see he looked at Kai expectantly.

Realizing what he'd meant to do with the knife in the first place, Kai studied it, it looking rather grand.

"This knife looks like it'd fit the bill." He said off-handedly, him moving to put the knife back in its original place in the skull, "I wonder who thought to make this."

Shin shrugged as Kai carefully pushed the blade back in its holding place, "I'm not sure, but President Ruto said - !"

His and Kai's eyes both widened in sync, a purple mist starting at the hilt of the dagger, it looping around and covering Kai's arm in a split second.

He tried to move as it kept moving, looping around his both in two differing directions, one going from his torso down and the other from his torso up.

When only his legs and free arm were left uncovered by mist, Kai tried to give a yell as to what was going on, but found that his body was frozen, the mist covering him completely as the few seconds since it started ended.

Shin watched in shock, only for it to evolve into horror as the mist dissipated, Kai no longer being there.

* * *

A man-sized purple mist appeared in the dark place, dissipating to reveal Kai there.

Strangely tasting air flooded his lungs as he looked down at the ground, it being dark.

He looked up, wondering where he was, only to give a yell of surprise at what stood before him.

In front of him stood a man standing stark naked several feet away from him, him hunched over, his skin completely gray.

He lacked eyes, his sockets empty, his mouth hanging lower than was possible for a human being, him seeming to lack teeth or a tongue, giving him a rather ghoulish look.

His arms were in stubs, everything from where his elbows usually would be and downwards not being there.

"A mortal? Here? How curious." A deep voice said to his left, and looking at the source of the sound, Kai jumped at the sight of a humanoid being floating there, his gloved hands spread out as balls of flame burned above them.

He wore a uniform similar to Kai himself, only his jacket looked more like a trench coat in its length.

What caught Kai's attention the most, however, was the fact that where the man's head should've been, there was only a large ball of flame.

"Why have you come here, I wonder? Do you have fascination with the occult? Do you seek power?"

Kai blinked, then tried his best to sound calm, "I... don't have much reason to be here. I am in the Occult Club of my school though."

He could tell his efforts to sound calm didn't come to fruition.

"Do you have interest in demons?"

"I... I'd say so, yes." Kai said, only for the man with the flaming head to chuckle lightly.

"That's a pity. I'm not interested in you at all. Humans are mundane, boring creatures." Kai blinked at this, yet the man kept speaking. "Tell me, why should I consider you worthy of my time?"

Kai rubbed the back of his head, "To be honest, I don't even know who you are. How do I know if I should even try convincing you to be interested in me?"

Not that he was interested in this guy to begin with, he thought wryly.

He was much more curious about where the heck he was.

"I see. You may refer to me as the Flame Demon then."

"The "Flame Demon"?" Kai asked, giving an incredulous look at the man before him. "You're...?"

"Yes, a mundane name for a demon with powers over fire, I know. But, if I were to give you my real name, you'd have power over me. I dare not give that power away foolishly."

"Huh." Kai held his hips. "You're a demon?"

"I... Yes," judging from his tone, Kai imagined the Flame Demon would be looking at him strangely if he had a face, "I am a demon. Hence, "Flame Demon". What else did you think I was, since we're in the demon realm?"

Kai gave a cursory look around himself (making sure to mind the ghoul-faced man that seemed to be staring at him), and commented, "I was thinking more some type of monster who can control flames, but "demon" isn't that far removed from that. Not to mention that this isn't what I imagined the demon realm would look like."

There seemed to be perpetual darkness all around this circumference of light he stood in, Kai noted.

"Really? Were you imagining some fiery inferno filled with people crying in agony as we tortured them?"

"Something to that extent, yes." Kai crossed his arms, him feeling calmer, and more nervous than scared. "But... may I ask why you have powers over flames?"

The Flame Demon regarded him curiously for a moment, then spoke, "When a human becomes a demon, they are reborn into a more appropiate form. This form was the most appropiate form for me, considering the circumstances of my ascension to demonhood."

Kai gave him a curious look in response to this.

So there were humans who could become demons after all?

They weren't just angels who followed the Devil?

"If that's the case," he said thoughtfully, "How did you come to be a demon?"

"I did a ritual and communed with a demon who took interest in me, and I became a demon with the power over flames after performing a sacrifice for it to give me power. I was reborn in the form that you see before you."

"Why did you want to become a demon? Did you know this would happen to you?"

"At the time I didn't care, and even now I still don't. I only chose to become a demon for revenge. That was all that mattered."

"Revenge?" Kai asked with a still curious look. "Revenge for what?"

The Flame Demon paused, and then the flames in his hands stopped.

Kai felt fear fester within him, wondering why this happened, and if he'd angered the demon with this question, only for the Flame Demon to cross his arms like him.

"There's no need for you to know." He said evenly. "There's nothing for me to gain by telling you."

Kai's eyes flickered in understanding.

"I understand, Flame Demon. I guess..." He looked down slightly, his tone becoming grim, "If it makes you feel any better, I once tried taking revenge on someone. So I think I can understand how you might've felt. I've tried letting that want for revenge go, since I..."

The words stuck in his throat, but he forced them out for the sake of finishing his sentence.

He had just realized he shouldn't impose on the Flame Demon's time.

"Since I... already took revenge on those people. But somehow, whenever I think of it, it's just... so hard to let it go. Maybe if my parents were still alive then I..."

He stopped himself, his eyes stinging with tears at the memories, him closing them tightly, then shaking his head.

"I'm sorry." He said, holding his forehead. "I'm sorry for rambling on. I just wanted to say that I can empathize with how you feel. If I had the chance to, I think I probably would've become a demon to take revenge on them."

The Flame Demon paused thoughtfully, but Kai kept speaking before he could respond.

"I'm sorry for taking up your time. You're probably busy. If you know how I can get back to the human realm, that'd be a huge help to me."

The Flame Demon gave a look to the white circle to Kai's immediate left, and his right, though his lack of a head made this impossible to perceive.

"That white circle over there will lead you back to where you came from." He said, Kai looking in that direction.

"Thank you, Flame Demon." Kai said, walking to the circle after he figured out what the Flame Demon meant.

Before he could leave however, the Flame Demon spoke to the young man, "I suppose I can empathize with you as well, human. I killed people in revenge for killing my parents. If you took revenge for a similar reason, I imagine that you aren't so mundane after all."

Kai paused for a moment.

"I think I would be happy to hear that if it wasn't me killing people in revenge for my parents' lives that makes me more interesting." He said this in a dark tone, walking into the circle, his body consumed in the purple mist again.

* * *

When the mist dissipated from around him again, Kai opened his closed eyes, finding Shin to be standing right next to him, eyes wide in surprise.

"Are you okay Shin?" Kai asked blankly, Shin staring at him incredulously.

"What happened? Where did you...?" He looked between Kai and the ritual knife curiously.

"I apparently went to the demon realm." Kai crossed his arms, sighing. "The demons there weren't much interested in me though."

"Really? What did the demons look like?" Shin's voice was a mixture of excitement and fear.

"Well, one looked a naked gray ghoul, and the other one I saw was wearing something similar to our uniform, only he had black gloves and he had a giant ball of white fire where his head should've been."

"Alright." Shin seemed satisfied with this. "But... why and how did you end up getting to the demon realm from this?"

"No way for me to know." Kai shook his head, him realizing then how much his voice was quivering.

Assuming any of the horror cliches associated with demons were true, he couldn't have been taken to the demon realm from being a virgin (though, he reasoned, this cliche often revolved around female virgins, which he wasn't).

He hadn't drawn any blood, so that couldn't have been it.

Was it because he was an orphan?

He shook this idea out of his head immediately.

What difference would it make if he were an orphan or not?

He sighed, giving up.

"Do... do you think you could go to the demon realm again?" Shin asked, looking at him nervously and excitedly.

"I don't think it'll do me much good to do that." Kai said, shaking his head. "What's the point of doing it if I can't even talk much with a demon?"

"Well, the point of our activities is summoning a demon. It may not be the same thing, but if we can go to their domain, then that'd be the next best thing."

Kai thought about it, then nodded, "I understand. But... I'd rather do that later, when everyone in the club is here."

He walked out of the floor pentagram, going towards the exit.

"I understand. Whenever you're ready. President Ruto will definitely be happy about this."

At this, Kai stopped at the door, looking back at him, "Will she really?"

Shin nodded vigorously.

"Okay. I'll try to come for club time if nothing comes up then." Kai said, walking out of the room, rubbing his eyes of the tears that were threatening to spill, Shin not having noticed due to the darkness of the room he was in.

* * *

A/N: Thus ends the last chapter I'll ever post to this section.

If you're reading this, and you ever want to read further updates, look for the story titled "Simple Friendship" in the Yandere Simulator section.

Goodbye.


	11. Chapter 11

Upon reaching her classroom, Koharu would be the first to find the brown skinned boy sitting near the front of the classroom.

He held his head on the palm of his right hand, his elbow pressed into the desk he sat on, as though he was tired, his eyes closed.

Seeing this, she raised an eyebrow, walking to the boy's side, crouching down in front of him, crossing her arms over her knees as she stared at his face, her seeing that he looked troubled as well as tired, "Hey, Kai."

His eyes whipped open, his head lifting itself up, meeting her eyes in surprise for a moment, only to relax when he realized who it was.

"Hey," he smiled at her, resting his head on his palm again, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I caught your name before."

She pouted at him, "What? You don't remember me?"

"I do, don't worry," his smile turned bitter, "I just don't know your name is all. Could you tell me what it is?"

"It's Hinata, Koharu," she said, her pout remaining, "But how did you know Saki's name if you don't know mine?"

"Miyu-senpai?" He asked for clarification, Koharu nodding. "I read the post that red haired girl showed me yesterday. Since I wanted to refer to Miyu-senpai by name, I looked at her username, or whatever it's called, and I just remembered it more easily after using her name myself."

"I guess that makes sense. And that red haired girl's name is Yui." Koharu added, Kai nodding in understanding.

"Should I call you Hinata?" He asked curiously.

"No." She shook her head, smiling again. "I'd prefer it if you called me Koharu. It wouldn't be fair if all my other friends could call me by my first name and you couldn't."

He gave a surprised look, but smiled nonetheless.

"I'm glad to hear there won't be any discrimination."

"Nope, none on my end." Koharu shook her head. "There's no point in keeping up formalities if it's probably going to make it more awkward."

"Does that mean you'll be calling me "Kai" from here on out?"

Koharu nodded.

"Okay then." Kai looked to the door to his right. "Where did your blue haired friend go?"

"She went to the library. She kind of likes to read."

"I see. That's good." Kai smiled, only to look at Koharu again in curiosity.

"She also isn't in this class anyways, so I don't think she'd be with me anyways." Koharu said jokingly.

He shared her tone, "I see. That would only make sense," he glanced down at the position she was in, "By the way, aren't you uncomfortable like that?"

"A little." She admitted, looking behind herself warily before standing up, keeping a hand over the back of her skirt as she did this.

This sudden wariness didn't fail to catch Kai's attention.

"Why were you looking around like that? Did you think there was someone behind you?" He asked curiously, looking behind her in curiosity.

"No, but I wanted to be sure." Koharu said honestly, moving to a desk and pulling the chair out with one hand, her other hand pressed against the back of her skirt still.

As she turned to face him, sitting down in the drawn seat, Kai's expression implored her to elaborate.

She didn't disappoint.

"Yesterday, after that whole thing with you pointing out how we weren't being good friends to Kokona," he noticed she was clasping her knees together as she spoke, "We all apologized to her, and afterwards, we were trying to make up with her by hugging her as a group."

Koharu's gaze left Kai's face and moved elsewhere as she kept speaking awkwardly, "But then some creep tried taking pictures of our underwear again. So now I'm trying to be extra cautious about it."

Kai blinked, surprise taking his features.

"He tried taking pictures of your underwear?"

"That's what I said." Koharu sighed, redness coming to her face from embarassment at the remembrance of the fact that the boy she was talking about had taken more pictures of her panties than the rest of her group.

"How? You were... _wearing_ them, weren't you?"

Though the last part was spoken with a lowered tone of voice, the redness in Koharu's face spiked up at the implication.

"Of course I was wearing them you idiot." She hissed, glaring at him.

He raised his hands, as if in surrender, "Sorry, I just want to understand completely."

She sighed.

"How else do you want me to say he aimed a camera up between our legs to get a picture of our underwear?"

His expression flickered with understanding.

"Oh, so an upskirt panty shot." He mused, half to himself.

"Yeah. Don't know where you got the idea we'd be going commando from." Koharu said, and he laughed lightly despite himself.

"I'm sorry, really, but the way you worded it confused me." He said honestly.

"It's fine I guess." She sighed. "So that's why I'm trying to be more careful."

"I see. I didn't think there were people who actually took panty shots of girls in skirts. I thought it was just some dumb anime cliche." He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair as he said this.

"It's actually more common in this school than most people are willing to admit." Koharu sighed.

"Really?" Kai glanced over at her, his tone curious.

His mind couldn't help imagining the headmaster trying to silence victims of sexual harassment via compensation.

"Yeah. A bunch of guys try getting panty shots of girls without their consent. It's sad really."

Kai's eyes studied Koharu features for a moment before he answered.

"Well, I guess if I looked at it from their point of view, I can somewhat see where they're coming from."

"You too? Are all guys just that perverted?" Koharu asked, giving him a weird look.

"That depends on your definition of "perverted" really." He uncrossed his arms, shrugging. "If you think having sexual needs qualifies someone as perverted, then anything living that isn't asexual can be said to be perverted."

"I mean someone who has trouble thinking about anything that should be kept private, if that's the case." Koharu clarified, her genuinely curious.

She hadn't had any guy friends to ask this question to, and though she hadn't intended to ask such a thing of the boy in front of her, the conversation had simply taken that turn.

"I doubt I could speak for all guys in the world," Kai began, and she knew he couldn't, though Koharu still thought this with a mental smile, "But most guys our age would probably be more likely to be perverted than people older than us. I say that I can probably understand their actions _somewhat_ , because though I wouldn't go to that kind of extreme," he looked her in the face again, "I can't say they're wrong for wanting to go there."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that people all have different ways about going about approaching members of the opposite sex when it comes to relationship building. Some of them can easily see when a girl's attractive, but just suck about pursuing a relationship with them. Some of those people realize their attraction and try to vent their sexual frustrations out in a very physical way, with no regard of the other person's feelings on the matter. Even if what that guy did yesterday was wrong, it'd be better to deal with someone like him than someone who acts the exact same way behind closed doors."

"You mean like guys that act nice to girls when all they're thinking about is screwing them?"

He nodded, almost sadly.

"Those are the ones that are the most dangerous." He said with a distant look. "At least with that guy, he was being upfront about his wants instead of pretending to care about your feelings, getting close and forcing those wants on you."

"I hear you." Koharu sighed, leaning forward and pressing her elbows into her knees, holding her face in her hands.

"It's pretty sad whenever I think of those type of guys. They don't know or care about the fact that girls are people. They don't even realize just how badly they're hurting themselves by not looking for anything other than what they want." He sighed, closing his eyes. "I don't even get why some guys are so obsessed with sex. It's not like it's going to automatically make their lives better. What's the point of romanticizing something that does more damage than good?"

"You sound like you're talking from experience." Koharu noted audibly after hearing his tone.

"You could say that." He opened his eyes, gazing at the ceiling. "Getting revenge on people who wronged me wasn't nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be."

Not even accounting the fact that his religion said revenge was a sinful endeavor, the act of murder after seeing his parents getting killed in front of him for their religious affiliation felt different to him than he imagined and anticipated it would.

Standing amongst a place filled with the gory remnants of what used to be living people's bodies, he felt neither joy nor self-remorse for his actions.

In hindsight, he realized that he felt more guilt about taking judgement into his own hands as opposed to actually feeling bad for having killed so many people.

Kai wondered what his parents would've said if they'd seen what he'd done for a moment.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Koharu's voice, significantly more worried than before, brought him back to the present.

He closed his eyes, bringing a hand to his face, him realizing then that his body was shaking slightly, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, though he wasn't talking to Koharu as he did.

Despite this, she was none the wiser, her blatant confusion notwithstanding.

"Sorry for what?" She asked, concernedly.

Kai shook his head slightly.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, taking a shaky sigh, "It's... just some bad memories."

"Will you be okay?" She asked, and he smiled despite himself, nodding.

"I think I just need some time to myself." He said, standing up.

Koharu watched him as he walked his way towards the door, his hand to his face the entire time, his steps much more unsteady as compared to before, him leaving the classroom with this.

Amidst eavesdropping on the two, whilst pretending to be reading something on her phone as she leaned against a wall directly behind Kai's seat, Ayano dared a look at Koharu, seeing that her attention was drawn to the boy leaving the room, and she looked down at the time on her phone.

They still had some time to kill before class started, she thought, turning the phone off and walking forward, following behind the Middle-Eastern boy as he left the room.

She would follow him around a corner and half a hallway before he stopped walking, no one being in front of him.

The hallway was silent as the two stopped walking, Kai only moving to a wall and leaning his shoulder against it, the hand he held to his face falling to his side, his eyes closing as he did this.

A heavy sigh escaped his lips, and he shifted himself, his back pressed against the wall as he slid down to the floor, his knees bent at near ninety degree angles.

He grasped at his arms in a futile effort to steady his shaking body, and he gave a shuddering sigh, as though he were cold, whilst lowering his head.

After a moment of this going on, he started muttering to himself, and with the bits and pieces she managed to hear, Ayano realized he was speaking a language she didn't know.

The muttering went on for a long time, with him only stopping when he apparently needed to take a breath of air, and after a few minutes had passed, Ayano walked forward, him not raising his lowered head as she approached.

"Are you alright?" Ayano asked, her voice in a monotone.

At the question, he raised his head, and Ayano saw that despite his shaking, he gave a calm expression for her to see.

"Yes, I'm fine."

His response notably lacked much of the emotion that filled it earlier.

It was impossible to tell which of their voices lacked emotion more in that moment.

"Why are you shaking like that?"

"I end up like this when I remember more..." he gave a short pause for thought, "... _Stressful_ times in my life. It shouldn't last too long."

"Is there any way I could help you?"

"Nothing effective can be done right now. It would be best if you left me alone for the time being."

As though to emphasize this, he closed his eyes, leaning against the wall again tiredly.

Ayano gave a fake shrug, "Fine."

As she turned away, she added over her shoulder, "Be careful though. A lot of accidents have been hapeining here recently. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I probably deserve an accident happening to me more than anyone else." He said wistfully, as though talking to himself, and Ayano stopped, looking back at him.

Not knowing what to make of his words, in response to to the ones she'd said that had carried a rather dark warning of what would happen to him if he kept interfering with her, she turned and walked away, Kai still physically shaking behind her.

While she was out of class, she might as well could've gone about setting up something to get rid of Kokona.

* * *

When lunch time would begin, the first thing Koharu would do would be walking from her seat to Kai's own as he pulled a bento out from his bag.

He'd notably stabilized since the morning, and when Koharu spoke his name to him, his reaction was about as happy, if not more so, than yesterday.

"Hey, Kai," his gaze lit up with a smile, and she returned it in full, "Do you want to come to the rooftop with me?"

"Sure," he looked down at her empty hands, pressed behind her skirt, and questioned her curiously, "Aren't you going to eat though?"

"I'm kind of on a diet right now," Koharu said simply, and Kai nodded in understanding.

"Alright then." He put his bento back in his bag before closing its strap, standing back up and looking to her, "Do you think it'd be fine if I left my bag here?"

Koharu gaze a cursory look to her left, seeing the half-empty classroom, "Yeah, no one usually worries about their bags. No one would think to steal anything unless it was a pencil or paper."

After following Koharu's gaze, Kai smiled in understanding, looking to her again, "Okay. Are you ready to go?"

"Don't you want to bring your lunch?" She asked curiously.

"I'll be fine," he raised a hand to her to wave her worries away, "If you're on a diet, I wouldn't want to make it harder for you to stick to it."

She smiled at this.

"Thanks Kai." She walked past him, Kai pushing his chair in behind himself before following her as she left the classroom.

Upon leaving, Koharu looked to the other classroom curiously, seeing Mei walking towards her from her classroom already.

"Hey Mei, Kai's going to be coming with us to the rooftop today." She notified her friend with a smile, only for the smile to drop at Mei's somewhat nervous expression.

"Actually, something just came up." Mei said, her voice matching her expression.

"What?" Koharu asked, eyebrows raised in curiosity as Kai walked out of the classroom behind her.

"Well, I kind of need to meet someone near that old cherry blossum tree behind the school." Mei said, and Koharu's eyes widened.

"Who?" She asked curiously, Kai seeing Mei's expression and giving a curious expression to her nervous one.

"They didn't say." Mei reached up, showing them a closed envelope, and the duo's eyes widened. "They just said to come alone."

"Do you think it's a guy?" Koharu asked, and Kai gave her an odd look in response to hearing the undercurrent of excitement in her voice.

"I don't know." Mei shook her head, and Koharu grasped her hips, smirking at her friend.

"Well, you'll never know if you don't go. Go on ahead, don't let us stop you."

Mei nodded, jogging slightly as she started to move past them, her tied hair swinging strangely with her.

Kai gave a brief glance to Koharu, then yelled after the blue haired girl, "Remember to be firm if they try to take anything too far!"

She stopped at this, turning to look at him.

They held each other's gazes for a moment, before Mei nodded in understanding, running down the stairs and out of sight.

Koharu, who looked at him curiously, asked the question Mei decided not to ask, "Why did your mind immediately go there?"

"Why didn't yours?" Kai asked, him as curious as she was towards him. "You WERE just asking about whether all guys are pervs after all."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that they immediately jump to... THOSE things." Koharu said, Kai crossing his arms.

"I guess I'm a little paranoid about that tree since I went over there a couple of days ago."

"What's wrong with it?"

"There's nothing wrong about the tree ITSELF," he said honestly, "But a little after I first met Haruka-senpai, I saw the tree for the first time and was a little curious about it. So, after running all the way to the tree, which took a lot longer than I anticipated, I found that near the tree, there was someone's bra lying around it." He shook his head, "I know it's none of my business, and that I shouldn't assume things, but I can't help wondering why someone's bra would lying around there like that, especially so far from the school."

"Oh. I guess I can understand your reasoning then." Koharu said in a taken aback tone. "I wonder who would be willing to do something like that and leave that there in school."

* * *

One floor above the pair of talking classmates, Saki Miyu sneezed.

"Are you okay?" Ayano asked her, though more for the sake of her facade than out of actual concern.

"Y-Yes." Saki said, looking at Ayano again, "Now, what favor did you want me to do for you?"

"It's pretty simple really. Do you remember that guy who was with Haruka in the nurse's office yesterday?"

"Yes, what about him?" Saki asked, wondering what Kai had to do with this.

"Could you ask him if he has a crush on anyone?"

Saki blinked, "What?"

"I know it sounds strange, but I need to know."

"Can't you just ask him yourself if it's that important?"

"I would prefer it if you did it."

"Why?"

"Because my friend wants to know for some reason." Ayano said, her being as honest as possible.

She had a gut feeling that Info-chan didn't have any information on who the transfer student liked, so this was somewhat for her benefit, even if he understandably didn't like anyone, at least in THAT way, at that point.

"Really?"

"Yes. She wants to know, but I don't know how to go about asking him for her."

Saki stared at her for a moment, then sighed heavily.

"Okay. I'll ask him if he likes anyone."

She wasn't exactly the most willing person in the world to ask someone something so personal, especially when they'd only met almost exactly 24 hours prior to then, but if Ayano really needed this for someone, she reasoned, she would be willing to ask for her sake.

She still owed her for finding her bra after all.

"Thank you. Could you text me the answer later?"

"I guess so."

"Thank you." Ayano gave a genuine smile to Saki, feeling genuine elation fill her at the fact that her plan to remove Kokona from the picture was falling into place.

"You're welcome." Saki nodded, turning around and walking forward quickly, wondering where Kai could've been then as she walked towards the stairs, only to find him walking up the stairs whilst conversing with Koharu.

Blinking in surprise at this level of good timing, but being happy to get the favor over with then and there, she pushed this thought to the back of her mind, walking behind them as Kai and Koharu went up the steps, them not noticing her as they reveled in their conversation.

Seeing that they were so engrossed in conversation made Saki hesitate to bring Kai's attention to her.

Realizing this hesitance, she decided to follow after them, hoping to gain the opportunity to ask with time and patience.

She would never see Ayano sprinting away from there, the barest hint of a smile on her face as she went, running after where Kokona had gone after Saki told her to go on without her when Ayano had first arrived to talk to her.

She simply hoped that nothing could get in her way this time, if Saki managed to distract the transfer student long enough.

Her faith in her decoy would fade from her mind the more she ran through the different floors, mindful of different teachers telling her not to run in the hall.

She searched all throughout the second floor and the cafeteria, but found no one, and when she searched throughout the first floor, she had no better luck.

Wondering where Kokona was, Ayano would run into the plaza, only to stop when she caught the unmistakable sight of hair curled into outlandish purple drills.

Kokona was hiding herself behind a tree, staring around its thick trunk to see the boy with shaggy black hair sitting at the fountain.

Her Senpai, Ayano realized.

Her eyes caught onto the sight of a bento sitting on the bench behind Kokona, and recognizing it as the same bento Kokona was going to eat out of when she left to be alone, Ayano smiled, breathing a sigh of relief.

She hadn't been running around the entire school for nothing after all.

She did a speed walk as opposed to a run to avoid attracting attention to herself, and reaching into her bag, Ayano pulled the canister of rat poisoning out, aiming it at Kokona's food, spraying all over her food for a few seconds, giving many glances up to her rival and Senpai whilst doing this, before stopping, putting the canister back into her bag hurriedly before walking away as quickly as she could, walking back inside with a satisfied smile on her face, leaning against the wall upon reentering the inside of the school, giving a sigh of relief.

She wouldn't have to worry about Haruka stealing her Senpai anymore, she thought.

All that was left was for Kokona to eat her poisoned food, and that would be the end of that.

She subconsciously turned around, peeking around the corner, her heartbeat picking up in anticipation when she saw Kokona sitting down on the bench again, picking up her eating utensil after sitting her bento into her lap.

She pressed her spoon her into the food, scooping it up, and gave a visible sigh.

Ayano leaned in closer, waiting for the moment when Kokona would eat the food that spelt death for her, the senior listening to her silent urgings and bringing the spoon up to her mouth...!

"KOKONA! _KOKONA_!"

Ayano, Kokona and Taro Yamada would all jump in surprise simultaneously to the scream, looking around frantically for the source of the terror filled voice.

"I'M UP HERE HARUKA-SENPAI!"

After this yell came the sound of someone saying something that seemed to be something along the lines of telling the speaker to calm down, but Kokona and Yamada both looked up at the source of the voice despite this.

On the roof stood Kai, him bent halfway over the railing that kept him from falling, as he called out to Kokona.

"DON'T EAT THAT FOOD, WHATEVER YOU DO!" He continued to yell at her.

She felt the impulse to ask why for a moment, but the sheer amount of panic conveyed in his expression kept her from doing this, her instead choosing to push her bento away from herself and scooting away from it to help convey that she wouldn't be eating out of the bento.

Seeing this, and apparently understanding Kokona's silent message, Kai leaned off the railing and stood back up straight, breathing a heavy sigh of relief, calmness reaching his face again after a few seconds.

"Kai, what's wrong?" Koharu asked to his right, her surprised at her friend's loud outburst, looking down at Kokona's surprised face.

"Kokona's food's been sprayed on. I don't want her getting hurt or worse." Kai said, sighing, his knuckles a bit paler from how tightly he held the railing.

"Do you think it was necessary to be that loud?" Saki asked to his left, eying him strangely.

"All I care about are results." Kai said simply, unabashedly. "Haruka-senpai's fine. That's all that matters."

A moment of silence passed them by as they saw Kai's calm expression mold into a relieved smile as he looked down at Kokona, who still stared at him in a bewildered manner.

"Are SURE you don't like her?" Koharu asked, and though Saki acknowledged the irony in the fact that she'd been asking him a broader version of that question minutes before, and had settled for his answer of no, that she was mildly curious about this.

"I do like her, but in the same way that I like you two." Kai said with an exasperated expression before he looked down at Kokona again, "Haruka-senpai, I'm going to come down! Wait for me!"

"O-Okay?" Kokona said in an unconvincing tone, this still being enough for Kai to move away from the rail.

"Could you two please make sure that she doesn't eat that stuff?" Kai asked the two dual pig-tail wearing girls, looking between them.

"I'm pretty sure she got the message the first time Kai." Koharu said with a laugh.

"Better to be safe than sorry." Kai said, walking away for a moment before running, getting to the stairs and leaving from there.

* * *

While all of these things transpired, Ayano was busying herself with the prospect of walking away from the spot she was in when her new classmate had made the claim of coming downstairs.

She did not run, so as to elude any chance of drawing attention to herself, instead walking as normally as possible.

As she inconspicuously walked up the steps, she eventually came face to face with the Middle-Eastern boy who'd foiled all of her attempts to kill Kokona up to that point.

He stood at the top of the section of the staircase leading to the second-year floor, and she kept walking as she made her way up the stairs despite him standing there.

"Can I ask you something?" He asked her, and Ayano stopped, staring up at him curiously.

Taking this as a yes, Kai narrowed his eyes.

"Why did you spray that stuff onto Haruka-senpai's food?"

"What are you talking about?" She asked, giving a confused look to him.

"You spraying something on the food of a bento that belonged to someone else when they weren't looking. It happened a couple of minutes ago."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ayano said, and Kai gave her a sneer.

"Would you mind it if I looked into your bag for a moment?" His voice was calm, his rather curious tone not reaching his eyes.

"Yes, I would." Ayano said, holding the bag she had closer to herself.

"Why?"

"Because it's my bag. I don't want you looking through it."

"At the very least, show me what you sprayed onto Haruka-senpai's food."

Ayano narrowed her eyes, then walked up to him, "Fine."

She walked a step past him, scanning the hallway for anyone else.

Seeing that there was no one else around, Ayano took off her bag, handing it to him, "Look inside and see for yourself."

He took it wordlessly, opening the flap, him seeing the contents of the insides of her bag, him no doubt seeing the can of rat poisoning there a second after looking.

Though the realization of what she'd sprayed dawned on him, Ayano was already taking advantage of his moment of distraction, her knife drawn as she moved forward, aiming for a stab to his neck.

He noticed her movements however, and as she thrust her knife in a circular path to plunge the sharp tip into his jugular, something she didn't expect to happen happened.

He dropped the bag, and his hands whipped up, catching her wrist with a tight grip a split second before the knife could kill him, him yanking her to him and allowing his right hand to reach up and take a firm hold of her neck, him gripping it tightly before he roughly spun around.

Ayano's feet left the floor and swung a small height into the air before he threw Ayano behind him with a small grunt, her landing on her side on one of the steps, this starting the process of her rolling down the staircase, this not stopping until her body rolled face on the floor, at the halfway point that needed to be passed in the staircase to reach the second floor of the school.

Even after he threw her, he was already walking down to her, Ayano having let go of her knife in the midst of losing her bearings, her surprise evident on her face.

She grit her teeth, trying to force herself up whilst reaching out for her knife, yet just when her hand reached it, Kai's foot slammed down on her wrist, Ayano wincing in pain at this.

"Tell me why you're trying to kill Haruka-senpai."

She looked up at him, her gaze meeting his.

His voice was emotionless then, and his eyes lacked any sort of empathy, them hardened completely as he looked down at her.

"I-It's because of Info-chan." Ayano said, telling him the best lie she could come up with.

""Info-chan"? Who's that?"

"She's someone who blackmails girls and sells panty shots to people."

"You're saying this "Info-chan" is blackmailing you then?"

"Y-Yes."

"That's why you're doing this?"

"Yes." She winced when he put significantly more force into her wrist, and as she slowly regained her bearings, she managed to pull herself up slightly, Kai scraping his foot off her wrist and on the knife, kicking it out of Ayano's reach before reaching down, taking her by the arm and pulling her forcefully onto her feet, Ayano giving a small cry at this as she was yanked harshly back on her feet.

"You're saying that you've been blackmailed into KILLING someone?" He asked for clarity, and Ayano nodded, feigning a fearful look to keep up her victim act.

"What will happen if you don't kill Haruka-senpai?" He asked, his voice still emotionless.

"W-What?"

"Answer me." He demanded. "What is she blackmailing you with that would make it worth it to become a murderer?"

"If I told you, wouldn't it make everything I've done be for nothing?"

"No. If you told me, I'd probably have half a mind to help you with your problem instead of hurting you for trying to kill me. Does that at least make sense to you?"

"Why would you help me? I thought you said you wanted to protect Haruka." Ayano looked up at him, the false fear fading from her expression as she looked up at him.

"I do. I want to fix whatever problem you've got going on with Haruka-senpai and cut it at the roots so no one gets hurt."

"You'd really be willing to help me because you don't want anyone to get hurt?"

Ayano knew questioning it would open the chances of him getting cold feet, but she asked him anyways.

"I'm not willing to help fix your problem for you. I'm doing it for her sake." Kai sighed, holding her gaze still, "I have no intention of making enemies, but if you keep doing this, it won't be long before you become one of them. And I REALLY don't need that on my plate."

As the good book said, Kai thought, he was to love his enemy even more than his friend.

This, in layman's terms, basically meant he was supposed to love the person who had just tried to kill him, along with trying to kill his friend three times, more than the person who was friends with him.

As he did not want to be put in that position, making enemies with this girl was not very high on his to-do list, especially given that the burns on his legs still hurt greatly.

"You shouldn't get involved with me then. Remember how I said you would make a good boyfriend for her?"

"What does that matter?" He gave a weird look at this.

"It matters more than you realize." Ayano looked down with a troubled expression. "The reason Info-chan is blackmailing me to kill Haruka is because... there's a boy that she likes."

"What?" His eyes widened, and Ayano looked up at him.

"Haruka likes that boy, so Info-chan's forcing me to kill her, so she won't take him away."

"So she wants you to KILL someone because she doesn't want him dating anyone else?" Kai half-yelled in disbelief. "What kind of logic is that?"

"What do you mean?" Ayano asked, feigning confusion now.

He scowled, but not at her, releasing her arm from his grip, "Everything involved in that logic is... it's just stupid!"

He brought his hands to his face in exasperation, and Ayano stared at him.

"What do you mean, it's stupid?" She asked, her curious now.

"Come on, you can't think there's NOTHING wrong with that, do you?" He looked at her, eyes wide in surprise. "I mean, what's the point of killing someone for liking a guy? Is that really a crime punishable by freaking DEATH?"

"Well..." Ayano looked away, "Info-chan said she wouldn't be able to tell him how she feels until everyone else vying for his affection gets eliminated."

"That logic doesn't make any sense." Kai sighed. "I get it if she's afraid of rejection, but there's no point in KILLING someone for the sake of making up for her problems with telling him."

"But... she says he's very important to her. She said that doing all the things she does to make sure he was hers would be fine as long as she got what she wanted in the end."

"That's not good. She shouldn't be willing to hurt others for the sake of that. Doesn't she know what type of effect that would have on the guy she likes? What if he knew that people died, all because of him?"

"Wouldn't he be happy to hear that she'd be willing to go to those lengths for him?"

"Only if he's a genuinely terrible person. If someone likes him, they need to consider his feelings before doing something for him." Kai shook his head. "They can't force their feelings on him like he doesn't have feelings of his own."

Ayano winced at this, "But... uh..."

"What? What's wrong?" He asked her, his tone several times more concerned than before.

"Well... what if someone were to like him, but on a deeper level than just "boyfriend-girlfriend"?"

Kai paused.

"You mean loving him?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Yes." She clarified.

He sighed, crossing his arms.

"Well, if I had to say what a person should do if they loved someone, I'd say to do the best thing possible for them whenever they could, no matter their loved one's feelings, or how they might get hurt by that person."

"But... how do you know what would be best for them?" Ayano asked, and Kai gave a moment of thought.

"I guess... You'd have to look at their situation, and see what would make them safest and happiest. And maybe, you'd even have to stop caring about their happiness and make sure that they're safe." Kai uncrossed his arms, rubbing his head in slight frustration. "But regardless, why do you ask?"

"Well... it's just that..."

Seeing her sudden nervousness, along with her slightly reddening face, Kai mentally sighed.

"Please don't tell me you like him too."

Ayano looked away, crossing her arms.

"I don't just like him. I..."

"Do you love him?" He asked, when she trailed off.

"Yes. I do love him." Raw emotion filled her with this confession, and she pressed her hands over her heart, it beating strangely.

"Does he know it?"

"No, he doesn't."

"But you weren't willing to let others have him because of that?"

"No, I wasn't."

"Very well." Kai crossed his arms again. "You shouldn't have gone this far for the sake of having him as yours. That much is obvious. But it's not too late for you to do this the right way."

"But... I don't know if he'll accept me, if there's someone else who wants him to be theirs."

"If you love him, I think you should be willing to have more faith in him than you seem to have right now." Kai looked at her earnestly. "And if you truly love him, so much so that you'd be willing to kill for him, then you should be able to sacrifice something for him as well. Be it the consequences of you not complying with your blackmailer, or anything else."

At the implicit meaning of Kai's words, Ayano hesitated before responding.

"I... suppose you're right."

Kai held his hips, looking down slightly in thought.

"Do you know where I can find this "Info-chan"?"

"No, I don't."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Very well." Kai sighed, looking around himself, seeing the knife on the floor. "You should get rid of all the stuff you brought to try killing Haruka-senpai. I don't think it'll benefit anyone if you get expelled before you got the chance to even tell your "special someone" how you feel, am I right?"

"You're right." Ayano smiled. "I'll have to be more careful."

"You shouldn't be trying to kill anyone over him." Kai said, minding her warily as he walked past her, back up the stairs.

"Yes, I realize that." Ayano looked over at him. "But I'll do exactly as you said I should do as someone who loves him, and do what will make him safest and happiest."

"I hope you don't mangle up the meanings of the things I just said and pretend that you did exactly as I told you." Kai looked at her sternly. "That almost always ends up having the worst consequences imaginable."

"How are you so sure of that?"

"Well, there's Social Darwinism being misused TERRIBLY, as a justification, for European countries to try doing the equivalent of taking over the world, then there's four centuries of abusive slavery for those of African descent in the U.S., because slave traders tried using one passage in the book of Genesis instead of the entire Bible to justify themselves, and then there are the religious groups that think gang raping women can be counted as a conversion process. Like I said, misinterpreting or outright abusing teachings can have terrible consequences. Thus, I'm telling you now not to misuse my advice to keep doing terrible things."

"Why do you think I've done terrible things?"

He scowled at her, "One burned up corpse and two wounded schoolmates of yours, one of the latter being ME, are living embodiments for the fact that you've done terrible things."

"I see."

"So don't take my advice lightly. While I'm willing to forgive the last few times you've tried killing her, if you try to hurt another hair on her head, I WILL find you, and I'll give you everything you deserve."

She gave him a smile likened to that of a doll then, her eyes lifeless, her smile something that would be unnerving to many.

"I'd like to see you try to stop me."

Kai gave a simple smile of her own at her lifeless one.

"Such an unnerving smile. I almost like how that looks." Kai said nonchalantly, and seeing that her attempt to scare him into submission had failed, Ayano's expression reverted back to normal.

Seeing this change, Kai pouted, "Awww, such a disturbing face gone. I almost wanted to add it to my manga colection."

"Weirdo." Ayano said with a low voice.

"I know I am. And I love being one." Kai smirked lightly, only for his expression to turn serious. "But, again, don't take my words lightly. You may have killed someone, but you can't possibly compare yourself to the number of people I've taken out of this world, even if you were to kill every last person in this school. If you're going to hurt my friend, just know that you'll just be another name on a kill count."

"If you were to date Haruka, we wouldn't be having this problem."

"Quit saying that." A tinge of irritation came into his voice now. "Quit acting like we're in some "love at first sight" romance story. Just because I risked my life to save someone I love doesn't mean I'm going to fall in love with them by the end of this."

"For me it's a love at first sight kind of story. Why can't it be one for you?"

He looked back at her, his gaze boring into her eyes, "Because, at best, this is just a story about friendship and its limits. Simply that. At worst, it's a horror story with a dumb excuse plot."

He walked up the stairs with this.

Ayano looked to her knife, walking to it and picking it up, her wondering for a moment if she would have felt offense at his words if she could feel emotions like regular people.

Walking up to her bag after putting the knife away, she picked it up and looked inside, the syringe and vial were still there.

If he would come for her if she attacked Haruka, she thought, then she would have to find a way to work around that solution and get the same end result, considering her attempt at killing him had gone south so quickly.

It was as she thought this that her phone vibrated to signal her receiving a new text message.

After taking out her phone and looking at it, Ayano half-lidded her eyes.

 **You backstabbing little liar. All the prices of the panty shot business are going to be raised by 20% for that little stunt.**

* * *

A few minutes later, as Kai walked out to the plaza, him seeing Kokona there made him smile softly, though she now sat alone in the plaza, knowing he wouldn't have to kill someone for the first time in the past few months.

He walked towards her, the bento he had for lunch in hand, and she took notice of him a moment later.

"Hey Nasir," Kokona said awkwardly, "Would you mind explaining to me why I can't eat my own lunch?"

Him standing next to her now, he handed his bento over to her, "Long story short, someone put rat poisoning inside of there."

"Huh?" Kokona looked at his lunch, visibly confused.

Seeing that she didn't take his offer of a bento, Kai crouched down, setting his bento down next to Kokona's before opening the other one, raising it up to his nose and smelling it whilst closing his eyes.

After taking a small whiff of it, Kai reached it to Kokona, "Don't you think this smells a little weird?"

She took her food, her poised to feel offended before she actually smelled it.

There was obviously something very wrong with the smell, and it showed on Kokona's face.

Looking over at him, Kokona opened her mouth, but no words came out in her shock.

"It does smell wrong, doesn't it?" He repeated the question for clarification, and Kokona nodded slowly.

"Alright then. Would you mind letting me get this off of your hands?" He took a hold of the bento as he spoke, and Kokona gave it to him willingly.

He stood back up with this, "You can eat from my bento. I don't want you to go hungry."

"But what about you?" Kokona asked, Kai smiling as he shook his head.

"Don't worry. I wasn't planning on eating today since Koharu's on a diet right now."

"Are you sure? I'd feel bad if you were to get hungry later."

"Well, I guess there's one way you could make it up to me if you REALLY feel that bad about it." Kai looked towards the sky in thought.

"What is it?"

He smiled down playfully at her, "You could give me another hug."

"What is with you and hugs?" She asked, though she couldn't help reciprocating the smile.

"Nothing really. They USUALLY help make people feel better, so I like them because of that."

"But how does it make it up to you?"

"Simple. You'll feel better, which will make me feel better." Kai turned with this, him walking away, only to stop after a few steps, turning back around to face Kokona, "Oh, and do you remember that girl from yesterday that came into the nurse's office? The one with the black hair that was wearing that gym uniform?"

"Yeah? What about her?"

"She's the one who's been trying to kill you all this time."

Kokona's eyes widened at this, her somewhat unnerved by how matter-of-factly he said this.

"But don't worry. She won't try anything anymore."

"How do you know?" She asked with eyes now reflecting fear.

The very reason she'd come outside, into the plaza, in the first place was because she wanted to be in the place where people would most likely see her if someone tried hurting her.

"I had a short talk with her a couple minutes back, and after she attempted to stab me in the neck, I pretty much had her at my mercy a few seconds later."

"What... what did you do?"

He looked up, rubbing the back of his head, "I kind of... threw her down half a flight of stairs."

Amidst Kokona's shocked look, he sighed.

"Apparently, she wants you dead so badly because you like some guy she likes. Pretty dumb reason to push someone off a roof and set them on fire, right?" He shrugged.

"She... she told you she did that?"

"When I saw her poisoning your food," he lifted her bento for emphasis, "It was pretty obvious she was trying something. When she attempted to kill ME for seeing what she sprayed on your food, it became obvious that it was her that tried killing you yesterday, given the fact that she SOMEHOW heard about you getting burned, when everyone I asked today just knows someone died in the fire at most."

He looked away as he said the last bits, his memory of how he'd attempted to take his mind off the problems of the past by focusing on the present making him think of his visit to the demon realm.

Though he wanted to have faith that the girl with black hair had genuinely just heard that someone in the nurse's office had gotten burned in the gymnasium fire yesterday, he wanted to be absolutely sure.

Though he asked around about the fire, it soon became obvious that the Drama Club had said very little about the event other than what they could tell the police to help them capture the perpetrator.

If even a small few had heard about Kokona getting burned, he wouldn't have thought twice about it and assumed that girl had been telling the truth.

But none of those outside the club and the staff knew anything about said burning, at least those he'd asked.

When he'd encountered a member of the Drama Club however, she'd reminded him of the fact that the one who'd set Kokona on fire had a ponytail on her head.

Thus, when he realized the person who'd somehow heard about Kokona getting burned also had a ponytail, along with her being the same person who'd poisoned Kokona's food, it became exponentially more difficult not to connect the dots that were staring him in the face.

The fact that she'd tried to stab him in the neck only served to cement any chances of her being the prime suspect for what had happened over the course of the past 72 hours.

"But... how did you know she used rat poisoning?"

"I asked her if I could see in her bag, and almost as soon as I saw the rat poisoning, she tried to kill me. It's pretty obvious she doesn't want to get caught for her murders."

"But... she wants to kill me because I like someone?" Kokona asked, mind buzzing.

"That's what she says the reason is at least." Kai shrugged, sighing heavily.

"But... why would anyone kill someone over something like that?" She asked in disbelief.

"They'd have to be pretty desperate for that."

"I guess." Kokona hung her head, holding her face in her hands, sighing heavily.

Kai walked back to her, sitting next to her, "Are you okay?"

"I wish I was. But this... it's just too HARD." She said, her sounding greatly distraught. "First I can't even help my dad's financial situation at home without doing gross stuff, I couldn't even be a club president for a single day without someone dying, and now I can't even have a crush on a guy without someone being out to kill me over it. Why can't anything in my life be EASY for once?"

Kai's gaze reflected sympathy at this.

"I can understand how you feel." He sighed softly. "I can't go a day of my life without something bad happening or my life getting put in danger. It can get tiring after a while."

She sniffled, and when she looked at him, Kai realized with a jolt that Kokona was crying.

"How do you find it within yourself to act as carefree as you do, when that's the case?" She asked, voice a small sob.

He looked down slightly, trying to find the right words to say.

"Well... I try to take everything that comes my way in stride. I do what I can to fix as many problems as possible. And if I can't solve them, I try not to get depressed about it. I just think, "hey, at least I tried", and try to at least alleviate the problem if I can," despite his words, he looked down sadly, "But even so, there are still some days where I feel like I can't take it anymore... where everything feels like it's just too much to handle. I guess, in those times, I try to remember the people I care about, and why I go so far for them. And, usually, it helps me remember that I'm not putting myself in a rut for me, but for them."

She sighed softly, a small smile on her lips, "I wish I could be that way. But I guess it's even harder than you make it sound."

"It may be." He admitted.

"Yeah." Kokona sighed. "I guess I shouldn't be complaining, considering how rough you have it."

"No," Kai shook his head, "You have every right to complain. No one your age should be going through the things you do."

"Maybe not. But some of the things I shouldn't be focusing on anyways." Kokona sighed. "I mean, what kind of idiot thinks about romance when there's someone out to kill them, among other things?"

"Someone who wants to be happy, maybe?" Kai suggested, and Kokona thought about it.

"I guess so. But being happy isn't going to make my problems go away."

"No. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be happy."

"Maybe. But I doubt the guy I like would want anything to do with me." Kokona hung her head again. "I mean, who would want to have a girl who's a giant load of problems as a girlfriend?"

"Kokona," she looked up at her name, Kai looking at her disapprovingly, "The world's already dead-set on putting anyone and everyone down. Don't make it worse than it already is."

"Well, sorry, but I don't know what else to do. I'm just stuck in this dumb situation that keeps getting worse and worse at every turn."

Kai watched her for a moment, seeing that she held her head in her hands again, and scooted himself closer to her, reaching over and wrapping his arm around her, pulling her into him, his other hand setting down her bento and pressing her head into his chest.

"We'll get through this together. I promise that it'll get better soon."

For a moment, Kokona said nothing, giving only a heavy, shuddering, sigh, before her eyes, shimmering in the unspilt tears, allowed them to fall, them sliding down her cheeks messily as she cried into his shirt.

Looking down at her scalp, Kai spoke in as soothing a voice as possible, "It's okay. Cry as much as you need to. I'll be here for you whether you cry or not."

Hearing this, Kokona hugged him back, and cry she did.

* * *

 **A/N: The word count of this chapter... IT'S OVER 9,000!**


	12. Info

The question Kokona wanted to ask remained in her brain as she continued to sit there, her eyes closed as she was held steady in Kai's arms, him saying nothing to her after his claim of getting through this giant mess of a situation with her.

For many moments, she wanted to simply fall asleep like she was, tiredness she felt from the general stress of her life weighing down on her shoulders, fueling this desire.

Yet, knowing within herself that she couldn't do this, Kokona pulled herself up reluctantly, sitting upright as she lowered her head, Kai releasing her from his embrace and watching her carefully.

She took to rubbing her crying eyes with her wrists, forcing herself to look as composed as she could.

"Do you feel any better, Kokona-senpai?" He asked, a concerned tone flavoring his voice.

She forced a smile to him, and knowing she didn't like the dark nature of their conversation, she wanted to make it more lighthearted, if only for a moment.

"You called me "Kokona-senpai" again." She said with a small laugh.

He gave a surprised look, but didn't return her smile, his concerned one remaining, "Sorry. I guess I forgot again."

"It's fine." She looked down, the smile dropping, her sighing softly. "Sorry about all this."

"About what?" Kai asked, him curious now.

"You having to save me over and over again. I can imagine you'd be getting pretty tired of it at this point."

"You don't have to worry." Kai leaned back, pressing his palms into the bench whilst leaning back, looking up at the sky. "I'm perfectly fine with saving you. It makes me that much happier to know you're alive and safe every time. Though I probably WOULD like it if I didn't have to save you on a daily basis, it's not like you can help that someone's out to get you."

Kokona sighed, holding her cheeks in her hands, elbows digging themselves into her knees again.

"Could you not say that so casually? It's creeping me out."

Hearing his tone of voice when he'd said the last part emitted a feeling within her that she didn't like, though she wasn't sure exactly what it was.

"How else do you want me to tell you?" Kai glanced at her curiously, "Do you want me to say it with some dark, foreboding tone of voice?"

"No." Kokona said flatly.

The idea of him doing this struck her as ironic, considering that she had tried to lighten the conversation, and yet with his question, she imagined it being darker.

"If you'd prefer that I don't mind doing it." Kai said, making Kokona smile faintly at the playful smile within his voice.

For the sake of humoring him, she turned around and looked at him, releasing her knees from the burden of holding her elbows up as she sat with a straight back, "How would you even pull the dark and foreboding voice off?"

He smirked, then spoke while holding her gaze, his voice low as he gave a wide-eyed look that made him vaguely unhinged, him about as menacing as a villain in a poorly made cartoon from decades prior to then, "I am Kai Nasir, bringer of the news of the FUTURE! You shall be protected by a brown skinned dude of Arabian descent, who finds it adorable when his senpai smiles."

She smiled more broadly at this.

"THERE'S the one." He continued in his mock-melodramatic tone, him visibly struggling not to laugh as he did this. "What a beautiful smile for the Arabian dude to protect. The guy she likes probably thinks so too."

She laughed faintly at that, holding a hand over her mouth, "Okay, I guess the casual tone of voice is better."

She took back what she'd thought about his "dark and foreboding" voice likely making the conversation darker in turn; she was certain this voice would be the catalyst for her not taking him seriously enough to hold a decent conversation.

He looked back up at the sky, smiling to himself in satisfaction, "I thought so."

Though she acknowledged that her hope to lighten up the conversation had been achieved, she also realized that keeping the conversation and keeping it light would be an impossible task to do, made all the more obvious by what she said with this realization.

"But regardless," Kokona looked up at the sky as well, her smile dropping quickly, "It's still pretty hard to wrap my head around the thought. Why would someone really be so willing to go that kind of extreme over a boy she likes?"

"That's the reason she gave. I can only assume she's telling the truth, since you likely wouldn't know any other reason she could be out for you." Kai sat up, crossing his arms in thought, the smile he had seconds ago gone.

"I don't, no." Kokona shook her head, eying the area around herself warily. "I barely even knew she existed before yesterday. So I can't guess any reason for why she'd want to have me killed."

Even as she said this however, the memory of selling her underwear to a boy from another school a large deal of time prior to then came to her mind, and she felt an all too familiar feeling of self-disgust rise from within her again, with unwelcome fervor.

Was it possible that the person out to kill her had seen that, and liked the boy she'd done this act against the law with whilst mistaking this act for infatuation on her part?

"Is it true that there's a guy you like?"

She blinked as Kai's voice forced her back to the present, then hesitated for a split second as to whether she should've told this person the truth.

Then she promptly forced herself to nod after reminding herself of the effort Kai had put into helping her up to that point, her speaking a bit sheepishly, "Well, yeah, there is."

"How long have you liked him?" His black eyes seemed to stare intensely into her own, and she looked away, placing her right hand on top of her left one as she put her hands in a stack.

"I wasn't keeping track of that. I'm not sure when I started liking him, just that I do right now."

"Do you mind me asking something personal?"

"What?" She looked back at him again, finding him looking as though he was deep in thought despite looking at her.

"Do you still like him enough, that you'd still want to be his girlfriend, knowing that someone's out there to keep that from happening?"

She blinked, then waved a hand near her face frantically, "Of course I'd still like him like THAT! I just wouldn't be as happy from having him as a boyfriend because of the fact that I don't know when someone's going to try killing me over that."

"I see." He looked down in thought, him visibly thinking for a moment.

When nothing was said even after several seconds passed, Kokona asked him the question that came to her in that moment.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm just wondering if it'd be possible to set it so that you'll be able to at least try dating him without you getting hurt."

"Huh?" Kokona stared at him in bewilderment, his serious expression only serving to worsen this.

"Well, you should be able to date someone without having to go through a whole shotgun wedding scenario," he said, him still seeming to think, "Though I guess we can't call it a shotgun wedding scenario if you're being forced to NOT date the guy you like, instead of the opposite."

"Not even mentioning the fact that this isn't marriage we're talking about."

Kai looked at her, taking notice of the blush on Kokona's cheeks, and looked at her strangely, "A boyfriend's basically a husband you're not engaged with yet, so there's no point treating it any different if you already like him."

"Maybe, but I don't think there's any point to trying to date him. I've already got a bunch of other things to worry about right now. Pining for a guy's affections is the last thing I need to do right now, especially if someone's going to kill me if I even try anything."

"I think I can understand that logic." Kai didn't meet her eyes as he said this however, eyes narrowed. "I guess I have more in mind than your happiness when I'm thinking of whether it'd be possible for you to date that guy or not."

"Like what?"

"Well, first and foremost, there's that girl. She may be trying to kill you, so of course, I won't let her do you in, but at the same time, I can't just let her be like she is now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if she's killed one person already, when they probably had nothing at all to do with your infatuation, then that just screams the fact that she'd be willing to involve people completely innocent of this situation. The thing that worries me is that, if she's willing to do that, she'd be willing to do ANYTHING so that no one gets in the way. Other than it posing an obvious problem for you, I don't want her to grow into the mentality that she has to go to such extremes to have what she wants."

"Oh." Kokona said simply, not sure how to reply to this thinking, him still seeming thoughtful as he continued to speak.

"And then, assuming what she said was true, there was someone who's blackmailing her into killing you, so that's ANOTHER problem to take care of."

"Blackmail?"

"Yeah." He shrugged and sighed. "Apparently someone named "Info-chan" is the reason she ever went after you to begin with. Again, assuming she's telling the truth and isn't just pinning the blame on someone else."

He took notice of Kokona's wide eyes however, and looking at her, he quirked an eyebrow as he uncrossed his arms, "What's wrong?"

"She said it was "Info-chan"? You're SURE she said that name?"

"Yeah, what about it?" He gave her his full attention then, his thoughtful look lacking the slightest trace of existing. "Do you know her?"

"Not personally, no," Kokona shook her head, the recognition of the school's most notorious info and panty-shot supplier's nickname reflecting on her face still, "But... everyone in school's heard about her in some way. She's a girl that sells panty shots of girls to boys and blackmails girls. No one knows why or how she does what she does, but for the most part, she acts as an info-broker who usually starts rumors. The problem is, the information's rarely, if ever, good, and the rumors are always true, at least when you hear what she says about something."

Kai gave a thought to this description for a split second.

"So... she's like a journalist or news reporting kind of person, whose information's always accurate, but she just uses her skill for gossip and blackmailing people?" Kai tried to summarize.

"Yes, basically."

"Really." Kai looked forward, eyes tense in thought for a moment, before a flicker of realization made his gaze relax for a split second, him pulling his phone out of his pocket and going online, going to the Fakebook website, and eventually reaching the post that had sparked his telling Kokona's friends off the day before, looking at the poster's name and picture.

"Going based off of this, I guess I can assume this girl's not Info-chan." He said, showing her the post, Kokona nodding despite the returning self-disgust she felt rise within her.

If she had been Info-chan, Kokona was sure Ayano Aishi wouldn't outright try to give out information as incriminating as this, she thought.

When he saw her silent assent, Kai took his phone away, looking at the screen with narrowed eyes, "If that's the case, there's something I need to know."

"What's that?"

"Does anyone know you like that guy other than me?" Kai looked at her. "If you don't, then that's fine, but if we could narrow our options down to see who would be most likely to know, we may be able to narrow the people who could be Info-chan down and go from there."

"You're actually willing to try looking for Info-chan?"

"Yes. I don't want to give this "Aishi" person another chance to use Info-chan as an excuse for trying to kill you, not to mention the likelihood of her trying again." Kai's eyes tensed as he remembered the girl in question, marveling at the amount of effort this girl was giving to hurting Kokona in every possible way. "And I'd rather avoid that if possible."

"Don't do that. Really, I don't want you to get involved in this any more than you already have." Kokona's worried gaze made him more uncomfortable than he would've liked. "Didn't you already nearly get stabbed because you were trying to help me?"

"I doubt that." Kai shook his head. "It's more like I nearly got stabbed for looking into why someone made me have to help you in the first place."

 _Made_ him have to help her? She thought with a surprised look.

Apparently reading the question from her expression, Kai shrugged his shoulders.

"If you want to figure out how I view friends, you can just look at it as a cause and effect scenario." He explained. "The effect will invariably be me trying to help my friends, regardless of the cause. If my friend is making a dumb decision over their marriage, the effect will be me trying to tell him why he's wrong. If my friend is getting kidnapped by a bunch of human traffickers, I will do everything in my power and then some to prevent them from succeeding. _And_ if my friend is about to eat food when someone sprayed something out of a can into it, when almost all things coming from a spray can end up hurting someone if they put it in their body, then I will stop said friend from eating it, consequences to people's opinion of me be damned."

As he said the last part, Kokona could see a faint tinge of red coming to his cheeks, it being from embarassment if his change in expression from serious to semi-bashful was of any indication.

At the memory of his yelling, and how it had most likely drawn the attention of anyone on campus, she spoke without thinking in reaction to his embarassment at this in hindsight.

"I guess you're not as weird as I thought you were."

He proceeded to look away tersely, a pout in his voice, "I just have a tendency to yell loudly when I feel like the time calls for it. It saved your life, so I don't have any regrets about it."

She smiled at this.

"I never said it was a bad thing. You're weird because of just how nice of a person you are."

He looked back at her, a brief glance, and the red in his cheeks solidified significantly at the sight of her smile, him averting his eyes just as quickly as if to alleviate, if not avoid, this effect, but failing.

Awkwardly, he gave a small, "Thank you," before looking back at her, "Regardless, I know it's probably not a good idea to go after Info-chan, and that trying to stop that Aishi girl from hurting you's probably going to get me hurt as well," then looking away again, "but, considering the alternative, there's no way I can do that."

Kokona sighed.

"Alright. But tell me, what do you plan on doing to find Info-chan, if you're so sure it'll help?"

"That's the one thing I don't know yet." He looked over to her, sincerity marking his eyes. "So all I can do right now is try to prevent Aishi from hurting you."

"What does that mean for you exactly? Are you going to be some kind of bodyguard for me 24/7?"

He seemed to consider this.

"Don't say yes." Kokona said before he could answer, her voice a deadpan.

"But that's the only option I have right now." Kai said with a pout. "I can't report her to the police because they aren't allowed on school grounds for more than a little while, and if they haven't gotten any clues as to that other guy's murder yesterday, then we're not very close to having her arrested. Then, going based on me reacting appropiately to her trying to kill me, _I_ might end up getting arrested along with her. So, even with Aishi out of the picture, the chance of this "Info-chan" blackmailing someone else into doing her dirty work won't be out of the realm of possibility."

"Do you think you're some kind of guardian angel or something?" Kokona asked curiously. "Not to sound mean, but you getting arrested doesn't mean I'm screwed."

"I know." He rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh. "I just don't like the idea of trusting others to keeping you safe, or the idea of you being in danger to begin with."

"I'm not a little girl though. I can take care of myself."

"I know." Kai nodded, a bit of bitterness tinging his smile. "I'm just having a problem with putting too much stock in myself. She tried killing me, when I'd only looked into her bag and helped you, and I'm... honestly still a bit shook up by that."

Kokona studied his features with a surprised look.

He looked fine, not even scared or anything.

"What exactly did you do when she tried to stab you?"

"I told you already." He closed his eyes. "I threw her down the stairs after I stopped her from stabbing me."

"Really?" She asked, barely hiding the skepticism she felt at his words.

Now that the shock of his words concerning who was trying to kill her had settled in and faded with her acceptance, she was able to better comprehend the gravity of what he'd said.

Some of the skepticism must've apparently seeped through however, as he took a defensive tone as he spoke.

"If I was able to throw you out of a fire, I should be able to throw someone down a stairwell." He said this with crossed arms, and Kokona looked away slightly.

He had a point, she thought reluctantly.

"I can understand that. It's just... hard to believe is all."

"So is the fact that someone's out to kill you because you like someone."

"Yeah." She agreed, sighing. "It's probably the dumbest reason to kill someone I've ever heard, so that's natural."

"Well, it isn't THE dumbest reason for killing someone a person's ever had. I've arguably heard worse." Kai looked up to the sky as he said this.

"Who could possibly have a worse reason than a dumb excuse like that?"

To her now openly skeptic look, Kai returned it with a blank face, "Have you ever heard of "Mongols"?"

Kokona blinked, then thought for a few seconds before looking back up at him, "The Mongols... They were a large group of conquerers, weren't they?"

"Yeah, about as good as it could get in their time. They managed to take over most of Asia pretty easily."

"Okay. But what does that have to do with what you're saying?"

"Well, one of the first leaders of the Mongols was named Genghis Khan. While he was an effective leader, his path to power wasn't really all that bloodless in nature. At one point, he wanted to claim the right to lead his people after his father was captured and killed, but since he was so young, no one took him seriously. Apparently, some time later, he ended up killing his half-brother because they were arguing after hunting for a little while, and so, he gained the status as the leader. Then, they had a code of law called "Yassa" imposed where people weren't allowed to do certain things, as pretty much all codes of laws say. On the code of law included laws against killing, fornicating, stealing, lying about what you saw, and picking up after a fellow soldier if he dropped anything. For the most part, at least from what I've read, the penalty for those things was death. So, in other words, that means people died because someone else littered and they didn't clean up after them."

Kokona became silent for a moment, staring at Kai in disbelief, him not registering this as he looked away.

"Though, granted, for his brother, he might have just been desperate for food, since his tribe cut him and all his siblings off and left his mother to take care of them all by herself. They didn't really have much of a privileged life. Also, in terms of how harsh the rules may have been, some researchers have said that so many people died because of him, in some way, that he probably could've given World War II a run for its money in terms of casualties, if things didn't end so quickly for him." With a thoughtful look towards the sky, Kai thought about it and spoke simultaneously. "It's usually estimated that the number of people who died because of World War II, in total, accounting for both sides of the war, was between 60 to 80 million." He then looked at Kokona. "Just to put it into perspective just how bad that is, that happened less than a hundred years ago. The estimated amount of people killed because of Genghis was 40 million. He was alive 800 years ago, a time when half the technological advances we have now didn't even exist. So, in layman's terms, even if World War II was terrible, it's probably a good thing Genghis didn't survive to see a death of old age, or that no one pissed him off enough before then. Because, I imagine, that if either of those things happened, more people would've died from his time of rule than from World War II. Though, then again, he ruled for around four decades, so maybe not if he lived to die of old age. But you get the point."

"Oh." Kokona said faintly, the magnitude of such a statistic shocking her into silence. "Oh."

"Yeah." Kai then waved his hand. "Anyways, regardless, I agree, that is a pretty dumb reason for trying to kill someone. But that's as close to the truth as I can guess. Since you didn't even know who she was, and that's the reason she gave me when I had her down, there's nothing else we can go off of."

"So, basically, the only way for me to get that lovesick idiot off my back is to stop liking the guy I like?"

"I can imagine the likelihood of you pulling that off, let alone getting her to believe that, is pretty slim, but that seems to be the inherent message she's trying to say."

She sighed, returning her elbows to her knees and holding her face once more.

"All this because I like him," she scoffed, "And I thought _I_ was the desperate one."

"Maybe it's desperation. I honestly don't even want to get involved with those two, but that looks like the way it'll end up going."

"Another problem for you to deal with on top of the other problems you face on a daily basis." Kokona sighed.

"Yes, regretfully." He closed his eyes. "But, if it's for you, it's definitely worth the trouble."

Kokona managed a tired smile to him.

"I guess I'll rely on you as a friend more often then."

Though his eyes remained closed, he smiled as well.

"I'm happy to hear that, Kokona."

* * *

 **You've made this situation even worse than it needs to be.**  
 **Why did you do that?**  
 **I honestly almost believed you when you said you wouldn't throw me under the bus. A lot of good that did.**

These many messages were what came into Ayano's phone as she carried the limp body of Saki Miyu to a large instrument case, placing her unconscious body inside of it carefully.

After making sure that her limbs were placed in there securely, along with her hair, Ayano reached forward and closed Saki's open eyes, the soft breathing of the girl beneath her being the only remaining sign of her being okay.

With this confirmed, Ayano reached her hands up from her position of sitting on her knees, her hands pulling the instrument case shut, snapping the locks shut as well before placing her things back inside of her bag, her soon walking out of the isolated room.

With her kidnapping, for the most part, complete, Ayano pulled her phone out, reading her messages and sighing mentally.

 _I did what I had to._  
 _I didn't need him getting too close to me._

 **Apparently, he's already got you in his sights, so you involved me in this unnecessarily.**  
 **Listening to their boring conversation, it doesn't sound like they think very highly of your reasons for trying to off Kokona.**

 _Should I care?_

 **Not really. Just wanted to point out that you have a Devoted Persona to deal with. I'd watch my back if I were you.**

 _Do you know where he is?_

 **Sorry. After a certain someone ratted me out, I've decided to become more SELECTIVE about what information I give out.**  
 **My DEAREST apologies Yan-chan.**

She wasn't even hiding the sarcasm in her texts now.

 _I guess I'll be having some trouble then._  
 _I tried killing him, but he ended up stopping me and throwing me down the stairs._

 **Wait, that actually happened? That guy wasn't exxagerating?**

 _You heard him?_

 **I called him and forced the phone to answer without his knowing, and he outright said he threw you down the steps.**  
 **Is it true that he had you "at his mercy"?**

 _Unfortunately enough._

A long moment passed her by before Info-chan responded.

 **To think a real-life Yuno Gasai could actually be put at someone's mercy...**  
 **Color me impressed.**

 _I would be too if he didn't react like that with me._

 **I'm guessing you tried stabbing him in the neck. A move like that deserves retribution, regardless of whether it works out well for you or not.**

 _How else was I supposed to keep him from saying something about what I poisoned Haruka's food with?_

 **Well, it never hurts to ask someone before automatically assuming that they won't keep quiet.**  
 **There are even Personas devoted to people who I distinctly outed who wouldn't do a thing to stop you from doing what you've done again.**

 _Which are?_

 **Cowards and Evil Personas. Both won't care that you murdered someone or something else, or at least react badly, with a relative use of the term "badly".**

 _How many of them are going to school now?_

 **All the ones that are going to school.**

As if to goad her further, Info-chan added something else a moment later.

 **What? Did you think I would give you that much information after what happened, what, ten minutes ago?**

 _Would you be surprised if I said I hoped so?_

 **No.**  
 **And I'm almost sad to say that.**

 _I'm almost sad to hear that._

The truth of this made Ayano sigh.

Tiredness seeped into her muscles, them aching from the amount of stress she put them through over the course of the past several days of her life from the beginning of the school year onward.

Up until that point, the only thing that made her so able to do the feats she'd done up to that point had been her determination to have her Senpai to herself.

Though she was willing to do anything and everything for her Senpai, she knew her body had its limits, and that she'd need all the help she could get since this was the case.

She knew that this was undeniably the truth, along with the fact that Info-chan was the only help Ayano could have that was almost garunteed to not turn against her, given her track record concerning terrible things she'd done.

Thus, given the fact that she'd thrown Info-chan under the bus, with Ayano even proving her past fears to be true, she could only imagine that Info-chan would have every right to feel upset with her.

And yet, like all other things, she lacked any of the emotions necessary to truly sympathize with her.

For this reason, she could only wish she felt sad to hear her confirmation that her opinion of her had lowered.

 **You "almost" feel sad?**

A moment passed by in silence, before a new message came.

 **That's right, I almost forgot. You can't feel emotions. It's probably a miracle that you even have an inkling of an emotion at all.**

As Ayano sighed, Info-chan looked down at her phone screen with a look of irritation as the bell rang throughout the school.

She had already predicted that Ayano would've betrayed her if the time called for it, yet the emotional reaction she got from things going exactly as she'd believed they had gone wasn't eased by the foresight.

In truth, it was possible that there had actually been a small belief, a small hope, that Ayano would've proved her wrong.

And yet, the serial killer had disappointed her.

A sigh escaped her lips.

The emotional reaction had been her own fault, she thought.

That was what she got for putting any kind of faith in others.

"Well, at least I actually learned a life lesson in this place for once." Info-chan pushed her wrists up into air, stretching her arms, her joints straightening with a crack after a moment.

Her voice became tinged with the strain of straightening her joints as she spoke to herself.

"NEVER get too involved with a client. BASIC business etiquette."

She stopped stretching her arms, loosening the strain she put on her arms and letting her hands fall, them folding on the back of her head, leaning back on her chair and stretching her bent legs, giving a tired sound as her leg joints straightened.

With her eyes closed, Info-chan looked behind herself by hanging her head upside down when she heard a knock on her door.

"Hello? Is there a person named "Info-chan" here?"

The person who spoke was obviously male, yet his accent made her recognize who he was immediately.

In response to the rather large explosion of surprise she felt form within her at Kai Nasir figuring out where she was so quickly, she jumped in her chair whilst stifling a small sound of surprise, only for the motion to cause the chair to keel backwards.

She made a small cry as her scalp slammed first into the floor, the crashing of the chair on the floor making her fall down to her side, Info-chan clutching her head in pain, eyes clenched tightly as she curled into a ball.

The sound of the chair falling must've startled Nasir into action, as the sound of the locked door of the room being struggled against as someone, presumably Nasir trying to open the door.

"Are you alright?"

"No." She said with a soft groan, holding her head as she stood back up, pulling her chair back up into its original position.

He apparently, and understandably, hadn't heard her, as he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Info-chan lied, turning to the door now that her task was done. "Why are you here?"

"I'm here because I was wondering if Info-chan was in this club." Kai replied.

"Why did you check here first?" Info-chan asked.

"Well, from what a teacher told me a couple days ago, there's a club with only one member in it, when a member of my club told me someone needed at least five members to make up a club. Then there's the fact that this place is called the "Info-Club". So, since my friend said Info-chan's blackmailed several people, I imagined that they blackmailed the faculty to let her do as they want." Kai looked around at the empty hallway, hands on his hips.

"So you think I'm Info-chan going based off of that?"

"I do. At least, I imagine that the club breaking the most important rule of clubs and still having a room to come to would be a pretty clear sign of something not being right with the people who are supposed to enforce the rules."

"Well, your reasoning's understandable, and although it's a little inaccurate, you're right. This is Info-chan you're talking to." Info-chan held the top of her chair's back support as she said these things, the pain in her head subsiding.

"Could I come in?"

Her answer was immediate.

"No. I've gone this long without letting anyone know what my face looks like. I don't have any plans to change that."

Kai sighed softly, but relented nonetheless, "Alright, I'll respect your privacy then."

He turned around, pressing his back into the door and sliding down on it, his improvised seat on the floor being something he didn't mind.

"May I ask you why you blackmail people?" He asked with a glance to the door, Info-chan being silent.

"What is it to you? Don't you think you're being a bit nosy?"

"I know I am. The only reason I'm asking is because I was told recently that there's someone you like, and that you're blackmailing someone right now to kill a girl who likes the same person you like."

Info-chan sighed.

Thanks a lot Yan-chan, Info-chan thought with a roll of her eyes.

"Right now, there isn't anyone that I like. Even though I've blackmailed people in the past, I'm not blackmailing anyone right now."

No doubt traced Kai's expression as she said this, him only looking up in thought.

"Do you know of anyone named Aishi, Ayano then?" He asked this for clarification.

"We're aquainted. But I never blackmailed her if that's where you're going with this."

"No, I believe you." Kai said with sincerity. "I'm only here because I want to clarify something so I know I have all of the facts straight."

"And you're going to believe me?" Info-chan said with a surprised look towards the door.

"Well, since Info-chan's obviously a pseudonym, and you're the president of the Info Club, I can only assume your name's an indicator of how much you know about things." Kai looked up to the ceiling. "Besides, there are some other things I wanted to ask about."

"I'll be willing to tell you anything you like if you have the money to buy it." Info-chan said, her voice flatter than usual.

"Does that mean I have to pay for what you're telling me now then?"

"No, this'll be free. For just this once. Don't get used to it."

"Very well." Kai smiled. "Would you mind me asking why this is free then? Is this some type of free sample thing?"

"No. It's because that Aishi, Ayano you're asking about misled you about my involvement with her trying to kill Haruka. I only told her Haruka liked the same guy as her. I never made her do anything after that."

"Why did you tell her?"

"That information will cost you."

"Alright." Kai mulled over another question in his head. "Thus far, do you have any information on me?"

Looking to her screen, where a hidden camera showed Kai sitting down, Info-chan replied simply, "At the moment, no. My information network's still got nothing on you."

"Okay. Does that mean you'll probably be setting your sights on learning about me next?"

"That will eventually be the case, yes."

"Could we make a small trade then?"

Info-chan looked back to the door, "A trade? What do you mean?"

"If I gave you information about myself, could I have some in turn from you?"

"That depends. Do you have information worth knowing?"

"That depends on what you consider worth knowing." Kai pulled his cross necklace out, looking at it somewhat tiredly.

"Most of the time, when a person's unremarkable enough, I just have regular facts written down for them. For the ones that AREN'T unremarkable however..."

"You have the dirtier bits of their lives on there?" Kai finished her trailed off sentence with an uncertain look on his face.

"Yes. Would you say you're remarkable enough for me to consider your offer?"

"Though I'm not bragging, I've done several rather remarkable things in my life. I'm sure a few things I've done could make you consider giving me information if I told you."

Info-chan smiled at this.

"Then, by all means, try and tell me."

* * *

 **A/N: For some strange reason, a guest reviewer wanted there to be a bad ending to this story.**

 **It's kind of hard to imagine why. Although the story does end badly, that's with a rather broad use of the word "badly", as how people view a bad ending to a story varies between person to person.**

 **Some believe a story where there's no real climax despite a buildup is a "bad" ending. Some believe that if the story ends sadly, that it's a "bad" ending. Some believe a story with an ending that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever is a "bad" ending.**

 **Of course, barring the second thing, those are things I'm admittedly NOT doing with this story.**

 **It all comes down to perspective whether this story has a sadly bad ending or not however.**


	13. Rekindled

Once the school day had ended, Kokona found that, on her way down to her clubroom, Kai would be going up to her classroom with a troubled expression, his face only visibly lighting up when he noticed her.

"Hey Kokona-senpai." He greeted merrily, and Kokona gave a tired look back, albeit with a smile of her own.

"Hey Nasir." She greeted in response.

As though beckoned by a silent force, she walked to his side, and he turned with her, them heading to her club room.

"Were you able to get the things you needed?" She asked him.

"Yeah, it was easier to do that than I expected. The person I was looking for was willing to help me out in the end."

His smile fell to a thoughtful expression once more as he remembered the conversation that had happened long before then.

The information Info-chan had given him had gotten him the opposite effect that he'd hoped for, him not being able to help feeling some confusion meshing with his feelings in that moment.

Why Ayano was so fixated on sabotaging the love life of someone she didn't talk to on even a monthly basis was one question that caused confusion for him.

Another such question involved why someone inside Ayano's immediate family, presumably a female, had anything at all to do with what the girl was doing now.

Info-chan had said something about her family having an abnormal number of traditions, though she never specified to him what said traditions entailed.

By the end of it, Kai felt as though he were only digging himself deeper into a hole with no benefits on his part for doing trying to trade information with Info-chan, and eventually, he'd left, due to Info-chan's answers being less than satisfactory from his perspective.

He mentally sighed as Kokona looked down the stairwell tiredly.

"I guess you're going to be walking me to my club room from now on?" She decided to ask him the question that had come to her mind, her somehow knowing the answer, yet asking anyways for clarification.

As she expected, he nodded.

"I am. You never know what to expect with the people here." He said, deliberately omitting the much more specific version of what he'd wanted to say, which would involve singling Ayano out when so many people were around them.

According to Info-chan, Ayano would have absolutely no problem stabbing everyone in the school to death, but decided not simply for pragmatic reasons (at least he'd gotten SOMETHING out of their little "trade", he thought to himself somewhat bitterly).

For him, this translated rather simply to, "Don't get tricked into thinking potential witnesses are going to help you at all, since, if she decides to kill you, she'd just kill anyone else before they could do anything help the mystery of your death getting solved."

With this thought, Kai became that much more wary of his surroundings again, Kokona notcing this and sighing heavily as they walked the hall that would lead to the Drama Club room.

"I'm sorry again that this is happening." Kokona said as they neared the room.

"Sorry?" Kai stopped making glances around himself, him looking at Kokona curiously. "Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for dragging you into this. If I had been more careful on the roof a couple of days ago, you probably wouldn't be going through any of this right now." She said dejectedly.

"You were meeting up with someone, right?" Kai asked the girl to his right curiously. "You don't have to feel bad for someone pushing you. That just means they're a terrible person. It doesn't reflect on you that they did that."

"Apparently it DOES, if me liking a guy is all it takes for someone to want me dead." Kokona said, an audibly large note of bitterness in her voice, it almost completely masking the hurt and sadness inside her words.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder supportively, his tone matching this, "Hey, a girl as special as you liking someone in that way isn't a crime. Any guy who wouldn't like you back despite the kind of girl you are, now THAT'S a crime."

"A girl like me?" Kokona asked, the bitterness in her voice falling to a sad note. "What guy would actually like a "girl like me", considering everyone probably knows my little secret at this point?"

She seemed uncomfortable with his arm around her, yet she made no real attempt to pull away either.

"A guy who'd lower their opinion of you because of that, without knowing your reasons, probably isn't worth your time to begin with." He released her as he spoke nonetheless, him shrugging nonchalantly.

Her shoulders sagged.

"Do you think he'd still like me if he knew?"

"I think you'll have to answer that question for yourself." Kai replied. "I mean, have you liked him that way for a while now?"

"I have... I'm just wondering if he'd still feel any sort of liking to me if he knew the kind of things I've done."

Kai looked at her, then sighed, "Does intention not mean anything to people?"

"Intention? Where'd that come from?" She asked confusedly.

"Intentions. Essentially the reason why people do something. You breathe, eat, drink and sleep with the intention to stay alive, right?"

"Yes." Kokona said slowly.

"Alright. And you did those things because you had the intention of helping out at home, right?"

"Right."

"Right. So," he crossed his arms, "with an intention like that, you shouldn't be chastised for going so far. It was all in the name of helping, not doing stuff like that out of want to hurt someone or something. The one who should be getting chastised should be the one whose trying so hard to get you killed. Their intention, in all of this, is basically making sure the guy they like is still single by the end of the day."

"But that's not how it is." Kokona said sadly, grasping her elbow somewhat. "People always assume things without asking first, and it's usually the bad things. So, I guess... It's debatable whether intention means anything to people anymore. There are some people who care and some people who don't."

"It should be a mixture of the two," Kai responded, "Sure, there are some bad things that can be forgiven if you have the right intentions, but just go about it the wrong way, but there's a limit to everything. You can have the best intentions in the world, but if you go too far, you'll still end up as a bad guy at the end of it all."

"Looks like I'm that bad guy then." Kokona said glumly.

"No. You're not in the wrong for wanting to help the financial situation at home. You're more wrong for letting it get to the point you did. That's all, a simple accident that you probably didn't want to happen. You're just a victim of circumstance. That's it. The only thing now is keeping yourself from getting to the point you were at a couple days ago. Though, you managed to take the first step rather well. I never thought I'd feel so proud of someone for telling someone off like that."

It took Kokona a moment to realize what he meant.

"Wait, you were there?" Kokona asked while giving him a surprised look.

"I was." A shamelessly broad smile rose to his lips as he remembered. "It's enough to make a person cry. You don't need anyone to take care of your problems for you, because, as you made quite clear with my boss yesterday, you can take care of it all by yourself. That can make you all the more attractive in those terms. You really DO have a bite behind that pretty face of yours."

"So you're just going to ignore the fact that it's creepy to listen in on people's conversations?"

These words made her a hypocrite, she knew this very well, but she was beyond the point of caring by then.

"Oh don't act like I'm the one at fault here." He gave a small pout. "With how loud you got at one point, I'd be scared for my hearing if I didn't hear what you were saying."

Kokona flushed at this, not saying anything for a moment.

She hardly remembered anything from what happened the night before, mainly in account for how angry she'd been

"I... I was that loud?" She said softly, and the smile returned with a vengeance on Kai's face.

"You bet you were." Kai couldn't hold in the laughter anymore.

"Why are you laughing?" Kokona said, the flush growing on her face.

"Because it was hilarious. No matter how much I look back on it, it was freaking HILARIOUS." He laughed, managing to bring it down to a snicker but still quite audibly laughing nonetheless.

"It wasn't THAT funny, come on Nasir." Kokona crossed her arms.

"Maybe not on its own, but the way he just stood there and took it made for a good laugh. Especially at the end when you gave me reason to suspect that his money may have been a way to... _compensate_ for something." He laughed louder, and Kokona lowered her head in shame.

They'd nearly arrived at the Drama Club room at this point, and she turned to him.

"Just so I can be sure, should I be expect you to come to walk me all the way home at the end of club activities?"

At this, Kai noticed where they were, and his laughter died down to a simple, but still playful, smile.

"Yes, my queen." Kai bowed his head slightly to her, his suddenly formal voice carrying a very faint trace of laughter inside of it. "I swear to keep constant vigil in the interest of keeping my sovereign safe. My honor as your devoted knight and companion depends on it."

"Don't overdo it." Kokona said, it being harder to smile as she turned to the door, her stomach churning in a knot of nervousness. "But... thank you anyways."

"No problem." Kai said, Kokona opening the door without looking back at him.

The club room was still empty, she noted, her walking inside, the knot in her stomach easing itself somewhat as she did so.

She turned around to close the door behind her, only to see that Kai was following behind her, her flinching back slightly in surprise.

"What're you doing?" She said slowly.

"I'm going in the club with you." Kai said, as though this should've been obvious.

"Don't you have a club of your own to go to?" Kokona replied, though her tone was more curious, and slightly confused, than rude.

"I told them I'd come if nothing came up. Yet something did. So I won't be going."

"You know you have to go to club at least once a week, right?"

"I know. Just getting my priorities straight."

"Which are?"

"Making sure you're safe comes first. Trying to talk to a demon comes second." Kai responded.

"Are you sure?"

"Very. I'm not going to leave you here like this. Especially if you're all alone." Kai said while peering into the room.

"There'll be people here eventually." Kokona assured him, but he shook his head.

"Not willing to risk it." He said.

Kokona sighed to herself, then nodded, her stepping to her left to let Kai inside, him smiling gratefully at her before entering.

Once he'd walked past her, she slid the door shut, the girl turning and looking back at the transfer student, who was walking straight towards the windows of the room.

"Do you only get to keep the masks in here for short periods of time?" Kai asked her as he looked to the now maskless wall at the back of the club.

"No." Kokona shook her head, the memory of the day before making her expression sadden faintly, her cupping her hands together faintly. "After what happened yesterday, with someone getting killed and the whole gym getting burned down, the headmaster decided not to allow masks to be worn anymore, so there wouldn't be a total repeat."

"Well, at least that decision has SOME sense behind it, as compared to not allowing the police to do their jobs thoroughly." Kai said with crossed arms.

"Yeah." Kokona said. "I just hope we don't have a repeat of what happened. It's not ideal, but..."

Kai turned to her when he heard her voice quiver somewhat, a shaky breath escaping her lips as her body vibrated to a greater extent, Kokona hugging herself tightly.

"Yeah, that's right," she whispered to herself, "Dorama died because... because I like Yamada..."

"Kokona?" Kai asked nervously when he saw her look, walking towards her, her voice being too low for him to hear her realization.

"I need to sit down." She said a good deal louder than before, her walking quickly to the closest chair and collapsing on it, it creaking slightly under her weight but her not seeming to notice, her shaking body growing worse.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm still more shook up by this than I thought I would be." Kokona admitted, then added for elaboration. "By the reason Aishi keeps trying to kill me. It... it makes me feel guilty."

"For what? You didn't do anything wrong." Kai said immediately, confusion tinging his voice.

Hadn't they already had this conversation? he wondered to himself.

"It's the fact that someone in my club died, because I like a guy." Kokona's voice shook. "He was a nice guy, and he only wanted to help people to smile. _And she killed him because I like someone._ "

Kai's eyes flickered in understanding.

"I can only imagine how that could feel." Kai admitted, having realized that being supportive could only do so much in situations like this.

"It's just so unfair." Kokona said, eyes downcast and head hanging. "I mean, even if you're being blackmailed or whatever, there should be some lines you don't cross. Killing someone who doesn't have anything to do with it should be one of those lines. I don't understand it... I CAN'T understand it. That logic is just so..."

"Yeah, that's why we've both called her an idiot." Kai said, closing his eyes as he leaned against the table in one corner of the room. "But don't blame yourself for this. You couldn't have known that it would end up this way."

"I KNOW." Kokona yelled faintly, Kai looking up and seeing that she was looking at him now, tears threatening to spill from her eyes again. "But... It's just so hard not to feel like it's my fault."

"I know the feeling." Kai sighed softly. "But it won't do the dead any good to blame yourself. You just did something that was natural and perfectly fine for someone to do. If someone's enough of a jerk to punish you for that, they should be the ones suffering."

"Yet I'm the one suffering still." Kokona said, voice shaking with a mixture of emotions, the clearest ones in said mixture being anger, irritation, mourning and, most of all, sadness.

"I guess life is just set on being unfair to people." She went on. "My mom dies, my family goes through a financial crisis, I try to help it but can't get a decent job in time, I go to a school where the tuition's causing half of my problems, and it turns out when my friend gets murdered for a stupid reason, the police can't even do anything. I bet they couldn't even solve the case for the girl that died two weeks ago because of that stupid rule where they can't stay for too long."

The tears in her eyes slipped out, forming streams of emotions down her cheeks as she hugged herself more tightly, in a vain attempt to still her shaking body as she slowly looked down.

Kai had already started walking towards her, hugging the sitting girl's head to his chest gently, eyes closed as he listened to her speaking.

"And... even though I'm scared of dying... I'm still stuck between wanting to get your help or not."

Kai looked down at her scalp, sighing softly, but saying nothing.

"Because, as scared as I might be of dying," she went on, "I don't think I can handle any more guilt like this. I end up like this colossal emotional wreck because people keep getting hurt and everything, and there's nothing GOOD I can actually do to help. My entire life is just a cycle of problems, and it just keeps roping more and more people into it..."

She looked down slightly.

"Admit it," she added, "you said yourself I'm like a magnet for trouble."

Kai gave a look of surprise, before his expression became apologetic.

"Sorry," he said softly, "I shouldn't have said that... I had no idea that that was how you felt..."

Kokona nodded softly into his chest, and he closed his eyes.

"You aren't a magnet for trouble though. Bad things just happen to good people sometimes. That's just how life can be."

"Maybe," Kokona muttered, "but it doesn't make it any easier to go through all this, without having any clue how to go about fixing it."

"I'm sorry. You just have to live through it. Bad things may come, but they don't last forever." Kai told her.

"I guess..."

The door opened behind them, yet Kai didn't move from his spot as he held Kokona, the girl having to pull her head away from him for him to realize he had to let go, Kokona looking up at the person who entered and having a somewhat tired expression.

"Hey, Haruka?" The person who entered seemed nervous, and Kokona slowly stood up from her chair.

"Yes? Is there anything wrong Taurus?" Kokona asked, despite it being visible on her face that there was something clearly wrong at that moment.

"I just wanted to come tell you that I wouldn't be in club when it starts today. Sorry." She had a somewhat guilty look on her face, and Kokona shook her head slowly.

"Don't worry." She said. "It's fine if you don't feel right at the moment. I mean," she hugged herself, trying to keep her voice from cracking, "I didn't do anything for club activities a few days ago, I kind of just went home," at the memory of her nearly getting pushed to her death, Kokona's eyes stung faintly, her closing her eyes quickly as she hugged herself tightly.

She wouldn't think about the fact that someone was out to get her because she liked Yamada, she thought to herself.

"It should be fine." Kokona told Aka Taurus. "You only have to come once a week... and I don't really feel up to doing club activities either, ever since Dorama..."

Her throat constricted faintly as she remembered the boy who was renowned for his carefree and playful attitude, despite the level of skill he had as an actor.

Mellow Dorama could've easily been the club president in her stead, she thought, remembering his charisma and how greatly he cared for others.

Yet now, his presence, his life, his future and all... they were simply gone, vanished in an instant.

Kokona glanced around the room again, realizing why the place had suddenly felt off to her.

Dorama was almost always here, and he seemed to liven up the atmosphere of the room whenever he was around, especially in the time before club activities, but now he wasn't there to do that task many had taken for granted.

She looked down, mentally sighing, looking back up to Aka Taurus and finding that the girl had a similar expression of mourning on her face.

"I understand," Kokona forced herself to say while grasping her wrist tightly, neither her or Aka Taurus able to look one another in the eye as her voice found a crack somewhat, "if you don't want to take part. No one would blame you."

She turned around, teary eyes closing again as she heard the door close behind her, and she gave a sigh, her body shaking strongly as she walked back towards her chair, bringing a hand to her face as she tried to vainly choke back a sob.

"It's just so stupid..." Kokona muttered to herself. "How could someone really _kill_ for something so _stupid_?"

Kai offered no words of support, simply sighing as he realized he wasn't sure what to do in this situation.

"I hope they realize just how selfish they're being," he muttered to himself, gaze lowered to the ground, "doing something like this will probably never make sense."

Despite the small distance between them, Kokona lacked the willpower to listen anymore, her only sitting and planting her elbows into her knees in order to provide support for her head as she held it up with her hands, wiping away every bit of escaped tears from her eyes.

"I'm tired Mom..." Kokona said softly to herself. "I just want to go home and sleep my problems away."

She closed her eyes as she remembered her deceased mother, her moment of sadness reminding her of her time in elementary school.

During that time, she had yet to make a single friend since going there, and, in a fit of loneliness, she'd cried to herself, her refusing to leave for school on one particular day, when the lonliness and bullying had become too much for her.

Her bedroom door had been locked from the inside, needless to say by her, and as she cried, her father had nearly given up trying to let her open up the door of her own volition, before the voice of Kokona's mother made the girl perk up slightly.

Using a strange trick Kokona still didn't know in her modern day, the woman unlocked it, and was soon kneeling beside her daughter, who was still crying to herself like a baby in the corner of her room, then so different from how it was in modern times.

When her mother inquired what was wrong, Kokona told her, with heavy reluctance, that her attempts at making friends had failed completely, with the bullying she went through only adding insult to injury.

Hearing this, her mother had held her, with her father, in their eternally loving embrace, telling her it would be alright.

She had long since lost the faith to belief these words however, as her lacking friends and being bullied for so terribly long had done, and she only tried to stop herself from crying so that her parents wouldn't feel sad.

By the time she'd been taken to school, having missed her bus and going by car, Kokona would exit the car with a half hearted word of thanks to her mother, who'd driven her there, the young student just getting out of the car before her mother called out after her.

"Kokona."

The purple haired girl paused, turning to look back at her the older woman, who smiled encouragingly at her.

"Don't feel sad just because you didn't do it after the first few tries. If something gets hard, then you've gotta power through it."

As she said the last few words, she brought her left fist up, reaching up and grabbing the mid-point between her left elbow and shoulder with her right hand for emphasis.

"Can you do that for me, Kokona-chan?"

Kokona blinked at these words, then, somewhat awkwardly, she replicated her mother's motions, lifting her fist and grasping her upper arm with her free hand.

"I gotta... Power through it." Kokona repeated softly, her not realizing that she'd replicated the same motion as her present day self that she had as her elementary school student self.

The past her smiled faintly, this advice leaving her with a bit of rekindled hope as she'd turned and run inside the school before she was late, and as she continued to sit in the chair, Kokona looked down slightly.

"Persevere..." She then softly repeated Kai's words to her minutes before, and she closed her eyes, a sad smile tinging her lips.

A smile, albeit sadder, that was one of rekindled hope.

"Yeah. Just power through it... Persevere." She said softly to herself, closing her eyes.

She reopened her eyes, breathing a quick, deep breath.

She'd be able to rest her mind when she got home, she thought.

She just had to make it to the end of club activities, she told herself.

And, after that, she would do her best to make sure that the people who would hurt someone like her, Kai or Dorama would pay for their actions, she thought determinedly.


	14. Recollections

The largest question in Kokona's mind as she made this vow to herself, however, was _how_ she'd actually go about it.

The club activities went on in a rather grim fashion in light of this, the death of a well liked member of the club hanging heavily on everyone's minds.

Though they did well with acting, something inside Kokona made her realize that, beyond the feeling of mourning, that it all just felt off to a great extent.

In addition to Dorama's death making it harder for everyone to concentrate, he would usually be the one trying to keep as jovial an atmosphere to the room as he possibly could, and he was apparently so good at what he did, his absence warranted the room having a rather empty feeling to it.

It took a large deal of time before people got into the meat of things, but in the end, more than three fourths of the members of the club either didn't come at all, or left early.

Realizing this trend, Kokona eventually decided to announce that club activities were over with a long period of time faster than before, her soon being left alone with the sole foreigner standing in her presence, him watching the doors and her dutifully, although he had a bored, albeit still serious, expression on his face by the time everyone left.

"Are you sure about closing shop early?" Kai asked her.

"Yes." Kokona sighed heavily. "Everyone's not feeling up to practicing. They're too wrapped up in what happened yesterday."

"It doesn't help that it doesn't feel anything like it felt to be here yesterday." Kai admitted, looking towards the ceiling. "It's almost like this place has lost a lot of the life it used to have."

Kokona nodded.

If even someone who wasn't in the club to begin with could see how greatly things had changed in a single day, then it wasn't a stretch to think that everyone else felt the exact same way, if they didn't get the same impression on an even larger scale.

"Do you plan on going home soon?" Kai asked her, him sitting on a chair while holding his head.

Acting had never really been something he'd been interested in, he thought to himself.

The largest reason he ever even entertained the thought of joining was due to him wanting to be there to support Kokona more easily.

He only realized then, when the club had reached its lows, that acting itself wasn't an especially good fit for someone like him.

"I'm not sure honestly." Kokona's voice brought him out of his lapse of thought, him realizing she'd taken a few moments to respond.

"Was there something else you wanted to do before going home?"

"No, not especially." Kokona shook her head. "I just want to be sure YOU'RE ready first, is all."

"Oh." Kai smiled faintly, then waved a hand. "It's fine. We can go whenever you feel like you're ready."

"Do you want to tell your club you're not going to come?"

"That'd be for the best, yeah." Kai nodded, rising from his seat and getting a an almost imperceptible cringe on his face as he went back to his feet.

With this, both leaving the room signalled the room returning to silence as Kai walked towards the club that sat directly next to the Drama Club, him mentally preparing himself to explain his situation to them.

If all went well, they would understand him completely, he thought, him grasping the handle to open the door and pulling it open, him not noticing the sound of drums beating until he opened the door and peered inside.

What he saw upon doing so made him freeze in place as he saw his club members there, all wearing black hooded cloaks that were baggy enough to make it so that, if it weren't for their shoulders, they would be indistinguishable from one another by gender.

One member sat cross legged next to the center pentagram rug, beating in a fixed manner on a drum Kai never realized the club had, the remaining members of the club sitting on their knees as they chanted something he didn't understand, hands raised to the sky as they did so.

He stared with a frozen face for a long moment, before he pulled his head back into the hallway, closing the door slowly.

"What's wrong?" Kokona asked, not seeing what Kai had and only hearing the drum. "I thought you were going to tell them you weren't going."

"I'm not going in there." Kai said, his voice flat as he spoke, face frozen in an unnerved shock as he stared at the door. "They've already started doing some Satanic looking stuff. I don't know if I can even talk to them at this point."

"Are you REALLY surprised?" Kokona asked without thinking, staring at him with a look that lacked sympathy. "The room has massive pentagrams on every wall. You can hardly call them doing stuff like that unexpected. Especially with how the club's called the "Occult Club" for a reason."

"I didn't even know what the word "Occult" meant when I tried looking into this club." Kai admitted softly. "I just read the description that my teacher gave me of the club and I thought I'd be interested, since it said it centered around supernatural things. I only thought to look into a dictionary to figure it out AFTER I joined. I almost wish I had done it sooner."

"Did you ever think of just quitting, if you're that against going?" Kokona asked, an eyebrow raised. "I mean, it'll probably look bad, given that you just joined yesterday, but it doesn't even feel like you were ready to join this sort of club, from what I can tell."

"I was not." Kai said, the "I" in his confession drawn out a bit, glancing over to Kokona while placing his forehead against the door, his expression that of mild tiredness and a hint of regret. "But it made the Club President so happy that I'd feel bad if I just left like that."

"You shouldn't always be sacrificing your happiness for other people." Kokona told him.

"What do you mean?" Kai asked, him looking a bit confused.

"I can't say you ALWAYS do it," Kokona added, crossing her arms, "but... you've done that a lot for my sake since yesterday. Based off the fact that you only joined yesterday, I can only guess you go out of your way for other people a lot."

As he lifted his head from the door, Kai's expression said the truth well enough that she didn't even need a verbal affirmative.

"So... don't make that a normal thing, alright?" Kokona continued. "I don't want to see you end up being sad or worse because you wanted to make someone else happy. Someone not being happy isn't the end of the world."

Kai crossed his arms as he looked away in thought, the worried undercurrent of Kokona's words getting to him.

"I know." He said quietly. "But I just want to point out... people being happy usually makes me happy. Is that weird?"

Kokona shrugged.

"It can be a good thing I guess, as long as you don't need other people to be happy before you can be happy yourself."

"I guess it's a bad thing then. If someone feels sad, I usually feel sad, and if someone feels afraid, my mind kind of goes into overdrive trying to keep them feeling calm again." He gave a sad, bitter smile. "I guess it's not normal."

Kokona stared at him for a moment.

"It probably can be." She said honestly. "It's just not a good thing to have your emotions link up exactly to how everyone else feels at any given moment, especially if someone's depressed or something. Though," Kokona crossed her arms and looked away in thought, "being able to do that can be a good thing as well."

She mentally sighed as she found the contradiction in her own words.

"I guess... the important thing is finding a balance for the two. You can't be too sensitive to everyone else, but you have to be careful to not be insensitive at the same time."

A small smile came onto Kai's face at this.

"Life can be complicated with all the things you have to balance sometimes." He commented with a hint of laughter in his voice, and Kokona managed to smile back.

"Yeah. That's how life can be."

With Kokona's affirmation came the sound of a small growl, and Kai gave a surprised look, before it meshed faintly with embarrassment as he flushed, him looking down at his stomach almost apprehensively from it making the sound.

Kokona gave an equally surprised look, her about to ask if he'd eaten yet before stopping herself at the last second, her remembering that he'd offered her his lunch.

"You must be pretty hungry, considering you didn't eat lunch." She said, expression tinged with guilt.

"I am to be honest." Kai said, looking a bit away as though ashamed of himself for being hungry.

Kokona turned to face the opposite end of the hall, the girl glancing back to him, "Let me make it up to you, okay?"

Kai's expression perked up in response, a questioning expression on his face as the girl in front of him started walking forward, him realizing after a moment that she was trying to guide him somewhere and following suit.

In silence, they passed two rooms before Kokona stopped in front of the Cooking Club room, her opening the door and looking to her right, Kai stopping next to her.

"I'll make you some food from inside here." She managed to smile at him. "I'm not sure if you'll like it or not, but it's the least I can do, considering how much you're trying to do for me."

The blush in Kai's cheeks, which had only just started to come out, came back again with a vengeance at these words.

"That's kind of you. If you don't mind making food for me… I'm sure it'll be good." Kai said, rubbing the back of his head in a semi-awkward fashion.

"You'll have to see for yourself then." Kokona looked inside the room, leaving the door ajar for him.

"Are you sure it's allowed though?" Kai asked, poking his head into the room but not entering.

"Yes," Kokona said back to him, the room so familiar to her that she didn't even need to look around herself to know where she was going, "I've been coming in here with my friends for months now."

"Ah. Alright then." Kai said.

Kokona had reached and opened the refrigerator in the club room before she realized that, even with her assurance that their being there was allowed, Kai still hadn't come inside.

She glanced over to him, seeing that he looked a bit uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" She asked him, and he seemed to grow even more uncomfortable as she spoke.

"It's nothing." He said, though his expression said otherwise.

"Is the way the room's painted bothering you?" Kokona asked.

The choice in color had been a point of controversy for some inside the club in the past, and a part of her felt she wouldn't be surprised if Kai was a part of the group who were against it being so pink.

Kai paused briefly, and he nodded faintly.

"I don't really like the color pink all that much," he admitted, "but... that's not the reason I haven't really come inside yet."

"Why haven't you?" Kokona asked automatically.

"Well," he crossed his arms, his expression becoming rather awkward, "it's an issue I've been hiding for the past hour or so, but... I sort of need to use the bathroom..."

Kokona blinked at him in surprise.

"Why haven't you gone, or even said anything, before now?"

Kokona had asked this without thinking, yet, the second the words left her mouth, she remembered the last 48 hours of her life, how her life had been endangered three times in that timespan, and how the one who'd saved her each time had been the person standing before her at present.

"Is it because you're worried about Aishi?" Kokona asked, her voice less surprised in the midst of her realization, tinged with more worry than shock.

Kai didn't seem to mind her questioning his logic, and only gave a solemn nod in response.

Kokona's eyes flickered with understanding.

"It'll be fine." She told him. "Just run there, do it quick, and run back if you'll be worried."

Kai seemed hesitant to do this.

"It won't do anything to worry about it and have yourself wait until I'm home to do something… like _that_." Kokona added when he saw his look, trying to play off the awkwardness of the subject by forcing a smile onto her face, this doing nothing to help her. "Besides, it'd be hard to keep your dignity if you were trying to be some knight in shining armor and you ended up peeing yourself, right?"

Despite her joke being made in poor taste, Kai managed a smile.

"Knight in shining armor… never really thought about it like that." He noted, expression thoughtful as he spoke, him too speaking without thinking. "I always thought of myself as an assassin with a good heart."

"Where'd you get the idea of being an assassin from?"

Kai blinked, realizing what he said, before he decided to roll with it.

"I come and watch my targets from the shadows," he said in a faux dramatic voice, "Hell bent on defeating my foes with the night as my disguise."

Kokona snickered faintly, bringing a hand to her mouth.

"Weirdo." She said, though her smile and voice filled with laughter letting Kai know his deliberate usage of his own weirdness had its desired effect. "Just run to the bathroom. It shouldn't take too long."

Kai's smile faltered at this, before he nodded reluctantly, him closing the door and walking away quickly.

As Kokona returned to making the food to make up for his lost lunch, Kai took to doing a quick jog as his footsteps echoed faintly in the mostly silent halls, him trying to ignore the pain each step caused him from his still healing burns, his expression being somewhat irritated rather than pained, largely due to the fact that the only available bathrooms weren't on the corner of the building he was in.

"Not the tell the architects how to do their jobs," he muttered, "but why put all the bathrooms in that one vertical space of the school?"

As he passed by the faculty room, a teacher that heard his footsteps, while entering said room, looked back out to him, and after calling after him, she said, out of reflex, "Don't run in the hall!"

Kai slowed down quickly at this, looking back to the teacher and nodding before turning around again, now doing a speed walk instead, him only stopping when he heard the nurse's voice behind him as he passed her office.

"Wait, I've been looking for you." Her voice called out, and he looked back at the pink haired woman in curiosity, before he realized what he and Kokona had almost forgotten to do in light of the day's less than pleasant events.

"Oh, hello Nurse." Kai said, mentally hitting himself for forgetting what the nurse wanted to do with them despite his burnt feet hurting for most of the day. "Sorry, I forgot to come back to you for the ointment treatment."

"It's fine." The nurse said with a kind smile. "Do you know where your friend is?"

"Yes, we'll be coming soon." Kai assured her. "I'll go tell her after we get all of our things ready. Is that okay?"

"Yes, there's no rush." The nurse assured him.

"Thanks." Kai nodded, before he rubbed his head slightly, "would it be possible to get the ointment and apply it ourselves? I don't want to be burdensome on you. I'm sure you probably have plans to be made sometimes as well."

"Don't worry." The nurse waved her hand in show of denial. "I only want to make sure it's done right."

Kai considered the burns on his legs.

He imagined he'd probably have a harder time putting the ointment on himself if he could barely keep himself still when someone else was doing it.

Perhaps what Kokona had said was right, he thought.

Sometimes, taking on all the burdens by himself wasn't a good thing.

Not to mention that if he tried to reject her offer of help, despite wanting to help people all the time (helping to prevent Kokona's suicide attempt had become easily his highest priority, after he ascertained that both the girl who'd been in his dream and the one he met on Monday were indeed the exact same person, for possibly this reason and his religion requiring him to love everyone to some extent), he would be a hypocrite if he couldn't even let the inverse to happen.

With this in mind, Kai nodded.

"Okay, thank you." He bowed his head slightly. "I'm grateful to you. We'll be sure not to keep you waiting in the future."

"You weren't given an obligation to come here, so don't worry about it." The nurse shook her head.

Kai nodded, then turned, jogging the small distance to the restroom and doing his business, him leaving with a sense of satisfaction, walking quickly and hurriedly back to the Cooking Club.

Upon returning there however, Kai would pause as he found a sight that he found strange.

His gut had been right; someone HAD come to see Kokona.

He wasn't sure how to feel about this fact however.

On the one hand, he was, needless to say, relieved when he saw that it wasn't Ayano that stood there at that moment.

On the other hand, it was due to the _method_ of this, how the person in front of him had proved his gut feeling right by, that he had mixed feelings to begin with.

Said person was a purple haired boy who stared through the crack of the reopened door Kai himself had closed on his way to the bathroom, a blush on the boy's face as he looked inside, the front side of his body pressed against the wall as he peeked through the crack.

Kai slowly raised an eyebrow at the purple haired male, who, despite his hurried speed walking, hadn't noticed that he was watching the guy watching who he could only assume could be Kokona.

Deciding not to sound weird, the foreigner walked forward, clearing his throat to make sure his words would come across clearly before he spoke.

"Excuse me?" Kai asked the person, tapping him lightly on the shoulder to get his attention as he walked behind him.

The young man jumped at the sound of Kai's voice, whipping around hurriedly as Kai, too, jumped back in surprise, the purple haired man's expression flushing more greatly due to sheepishness and surprise as he pressed much of the backside of his body against the wall.

"Sorry," Kai said, hands raised faintly in surrender, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine," the person said in response.

"Do you mind me asking what you're doing?" Kai asked, voice a bit awkward.

"Oh, uh…" The boy gave a surprised look, then somewhat stammered with his words. "Well…"

Though this person's voice sounded a bit strange in contrast to all of the other people he'd come across, Kai knew he was no one to talk, given his accent, he thought.

"Were you looking in at Haruka-senpai?" Kai asked, peering around the boy and looking through the crack, seeing Kokona standing there with some small hot dogs cut up in a way that made them resemble tiny octopuses.

"Y-Yes…" The voice of the young man brought Kai's gaze back at him, the person's voice a bit embarrassed.

"Do you mind if I ask why? You honestly looked a little weird a second ago." Kai asked him. "Almost like you were…"

Kai trailed off, him not entirely sure how to describe this person's behavior.

He honestly felt like "stalking" would be a good word to describe it, but he wasn't sure what to make of what he'd seen.

What he'd been doing had been weird, regardless of that, Kai thought.

"Oh, sorry about that." The young man replied before Kai could find an appropriate euphemism. "I just wanted to see her is all… to make sure she was okay."

Kai mentally raised an eyebrow.

Had someone told this guy about their leg burns?

Or was it just an innocent curiosity?

"Why not just ask her?" Kai asked, him looking at the male in front of him strangely. "You won't be able to tell by just looking at her through a cracked door, would you?"

"I… I suppose not." He flushed again and crossed his arms in response. "But… I'm not sure what to say."

"Just ask how she's doing. That should be enough, right?"

"It'd probably feel awkward." He responded.

Kai grasped his chin in thought for a moment.

"What if I were to introduce the two of you?" Kai asked. "Surely it wouldn't be as awkward that way, would it?"

The person blinked in surprise.

"A-Are you sure?"

"I am." Kai nodded, giving a vibrant smile. "I admire someone like you, for wanting to see how someone's doing. I don't want anything like awkwardness to get in your way."

"I see." He smiled with a mixture of gratefulness and nervousness. "Thank you."

"Could I ask your name though?" Kai asked, flushing faintly as he scratched his cheek. "I don't think I'll be able to introduce the two of you if I don't know it…"

"Oh, yes." The young man nodded, then rubbed the back of his head. "My name is Soma, Riku. And… she might already know me, since we're in the same class…"

Kai's eyes lit up in realization.

"Ah, I see. It's nice to meet you, Soma-senpai." He bowed faintly to him as he greeted him.

Riku didn't seem to like this however.

"Uh… could you not bow?" He asked Kai, who raised his head and gave a curious look to him.

"Okay. Why not?"

"You're not supposed to do that for people in the same social class, are you?"

Kai stared at him weirdly.

"Uh… I guess?" He shrugged. "I mean, I was only bowing a little since you're my upperclassmen. I just wanted to show you proper respect is all."

Granted, he was still trying to get into the habit of calling Kokona "Haruka-senpai", but that was out of trouble for going from seeing her as his friend "Kokona" to his senpai rather than a lack of respect.

She'd certainly earned his respect at the very LEAST, with the spectacle she'd put on the night before, he thought with a mental grin, stifling the impulse to laugh at the memory.

"That makes sense." Riku said, hands behind his back. "I'd rather you not do that though."

Kai shrugged once more, his grin falling.

"Okay." He became pensive again, before looking at Riku. "Should we shake on it?"

"If you'd like." Riku smiled, reaching his hand out, Kai doing the same and wrapping his fingers around Riku's hand, Riku doing the same.

"My name is Nasir, Kai by the way." Kai told him. "I'm a second year here."

"It's nice to meet you Nasir." Riku replied, them shaking hands before pulling their hands away from one another.

"Same to you." Kai said, hoping not repeat Riku's words after having said them once already. "Now, let's introduce you to her so that you won't have to resort to stalk… acting weird." Kai mentally hit himself as he realized he corrected himself a second too late.

Curse the tongue, he thought to himself as he remembered the Bible verse talking about just this sort of thing, the untamable evil that revealed the abundance of one's heart.

Riku raised his eyebrows, him seeming to realize what Kai had been about to say, and was flushed, expression nervous.

"I was just nervous about talking to her is all…" He mumbled faintly.

Kai nodded, deciding not to point out that this didn't mean that it was fine to just stare at someone in the way Riku had been.

He instead turned to look at the door, grasping the handle and sliding it back open fully.

"Kokona-senpai?" He called, the girl looking up as she saw him smiling happily towards her. "There's someone I want you to meet."

Kokona raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Who?"

"My friend Soma-senpai," Kai turned, looking to Riku encouragingly, stepping aside for him and gesturing for him to come into view.

Riku, with a strong blush on his face, walked in front of the open door, him smiling nervously and waving.

Kokona gave a surprised look.

She'd been half expecting someone who wasn't already in her class, she thought to herself.

"Hello." She said, smiling anyways and waving back at Riku.

"H-Hi." Riku said in response. "How are you?"

"I'm doing fine. Just waiting for this week to be over." Kokona said, her smile masking the tiredness that fueled this statement.

She could sit at home and sleep the rest of the week away if she could.

"That's good to hear." Riku said.

Then he walked away.

Kai stared after him as Riku did this, expression a bit surprised.

It seemed as though Riku's worries had proven themselves to be right after all, he thought.

"Wait, Soma-senpai," Kai reached out to him, walking after him, and Riku stopped before he could touch his shoulder, "don't you want to at least say goodbye?"

Riku looked back at him, and Kai blinked as he saw his face again.

Sweat had started to form on his face, and his purple eyes were tense and nervous.

"Y-Yeah. That would be a good idea." Riku walked past him, standing in the doorway again and waving Kokona goodbye. "Have a good day Haruka."

"You do the same Soma." Kokona nodded, and with this said, Riku walked away again, Kai watching him out of the corner of his eye but not saying anything, Riku not saying anything to him as he left.

"Oh well." Kai muttered with a mental sigh. "Guess he was more awkward than I gave him credit for…"

"Is he okay?" Kokona asked as Kai reentered, him closing the door behind him.

"He's a bit nervous, as far as I can tell." Kai said thoughtfully, hand lingering on the door handle as he gazed slightly after Riku again. "I wonder why? You're a pretty approachable woman, as far as I'm concerned."

Kokona looked at him warily.

"Meaning... What exactly?"

He looked up at her, "I'm saying it's not hard to talk to you. You're friendly and beautiful, so I'm wondering why he's nervous."

He looked down in thought.

"I wonder if he was scared of giving you the wrong impression, because you look so beautiful?"

Kokona blushed faintly, staring at him.

Catching her eye, Kai looked back at her, expression a bit worried, "Is that a weird thing for me to say?"

"Honestly, I'm not even surprised you'd be willing to say that to me at this point." It was Kokona's turn to look away. "I'm just surprised you're saying things like that, knowing I like someone else."

"?" Kai tilted his head. "Are you saying because there's a guy you like, I shouldn't tell you you're beautiful?"

"It's weird." She replied simply.

"Maybe I'm just a weird person after all." Kai shrugged his shoulders. "I should be able to tell my friend she's beautiful if I see them as a beautiful person, at least from my perspective."

This wasn't to say that he actively sought out the chance to call her beautiful, he mentally added.

He just had such a brutal honesty streak that he lacked much of a filter of his thoughts.

Though, granted, he may have found more inspiration to compliment her in this regard when he considered the fact that he was currently trying to prevent her suicide attempt from happening.

Some people committed suicide because they were never complimented or smiled at by anyone.

Though, he, admittedly, never actually smiled or complimented Kokona based on these facts.

All of the happy smiles he almost always had when he saw her, the compliments about her appearance (most of _everything_ he'd done in relation to her in actuality), had all been out of genuine love and caring he felt towards the girl in front of him.

He paused in thought.

Perhaps THAT was why he'd ever had the vision of her about to commit suicide to begin with, he realized.

Had God, or some angel, or something, shown him that moment, where Kokona was likely at her darkest hour, so he could try to help her to prevent that?

Was the friendship he'd made with Kokona the result of something… MORE than just him wanting to help her?

Could them meeting and befriending one another be the result of, dare he say it, a higher power who WANTED them to be friends?

At that moment, Kai was unsure.

He'd like to think of it that way though, he realized with a growing smile, cliché as the belief might've been.

"Maybe," Kokona's voice brought him out of his thoughts, her crossing her arms as she looked to the octodogs she'd made him, "but that's just going to make people get the wrong idea about how you feel about me. Even I'M not sure if you mean things one way or not."

Kai's smile turned bitter at these words.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to add any more ambiguity to it. Maybe I just find that you're just that attractive though." He shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows."

Kokona cracked a small smile in response, and the bitterness faded from Kai's own.

"Now then," he walked forward, looking to the bite size pieces of food in front of him, "what do we have here on the menu?"

"They're octodogs." Kokona said while looking at them. "I'm sorry if it isn't much, but this was a quick and easy thing to make. Unless you want me to make you something else?"

She looked cautious, as though she imagined he would have liked something else, her being unsure of whether this would be to his liking or not.

Kai didn't seem to notice her expression however, instead studying the octodogs.

"Aww," he said lowly, "they even look like cute little _octopi_ …"

As he smiled at the sight of the octodogs, Kai realized something else as he said the "octopi" in English.

"Wait… is it " _octopi_ " or " _octopuses_ "?" He wondered briefly to himself.

"Hm?" Kokona stared at him in confusion.

"Oh," Kai looked at her and waved a hand, "sorry, just wondering about what the right plural word for "octopus" is in English. Don't mind me and my ramblings. English can be a weird language to learn."

"Would you say it's worth it to learn it?" She asked curiously.

"It depends on where you go." Kai replied with a shrug. "I know two different languages pretty fluently, and I'm getting the hang of a third one as we speak, but a language like Arabic is a pretty useless one to know, especially given the fact that I'm not even a Muslim, if there's no one around who even knows how to speak it."

"Why did you learn it at all if you never needed it?" Kokona asked while giving him a weird expression.

Kai glanced away slightly, "Someone I knew kind of forced me to," before looking up at her, "I do know two more languages, but I'm not sure they'd even be in use in this part of the world."

"Oh really? Which ones?" Kokona asked.

"I know Pashtun and a little bit of Dari." Kai answered. "But like I said, I never really got to speak them all that much after one point in my life, so I can't say I'm really fluent in them. Go figure."

Kokona gazed at him curiously, Kai looking back at the octodogs.

"Might I ask how you make these?"

Kokona snapped her gaze back to the octodogs.

"Oh, well, it isn't that hard."

"That's good to know." Kai picked one up, examining it closely. "I almost feel bad for eating these little guys though… they're so tiny and huggable…"

"Don't hug your food Nasir." Kokona said without thinking, her surprised at herself when she realized she'd done this.

Usually, she was more reserved about what she wanted to say, especially considering how self-conscious she could be.

She imagined that he didn't mean them to be literally huggable, but that they were simply that cute.

Despite her thinking this, the way Kai pouted made her find doubt in her own belief in him, him seemingly unaware of this.

"I wasn't going to do that…" He muttered after a moment.

She couldn't help stifling a giggle to herself then.

"As weird as you can be sometimes, I wouldn't put it past you." Kokona laughed, before crossing her arms. "Now come on, eat your food instead of ogling it."

"Very well." He wrapped his hands together in a short prayer before he ate despite these words, and when he finished, he reopened his closed eyes and smiled, putting the octodog into his mouth and beginning to chew.

The flavor was one that he was unfamiliar with, having the flavor of what Kai could only describe as a raw sort of beef.

The raw beef octodogs actually tasted better than Kai had envisioned, he thought with pleasant surprise, a smile gracing his lips, him already taking a second one off of the plate Kokona had set for him, her subconsciously smiling the entire time as she saw how greatly he enjoyed what she'd done for him.

Though the meal itself only took a couple of minutes, Kai smiled gratefully to Kokona as soon he finished, and, by that time, Kokona was waiting on bated and nervous breath to hear his verbal confirmation that he indeed liked what she'd made for him.

He must have read her thoughts somehow, as the first words out of his mouth were content, "Thank you very much for that. I enjoyed it a lot."

"I'm glad to hear that." Kokona beamed, her looking to the empty plate. "Usually, people eat only a few of them at one time, but we both know you're pretty hungry. I'm just saying, for future reference, it's meant to be a snack food, not a regular meal. I don't want people looking at you weird."

"People already look at me weird." Kai pointed out, though he wore a broad smile despite this. "Between me getting stuck in the maze, talking weird, and complimenting you, a lot of people have probably got it in their heads I'm a weirdo."

"Yeah." Kokona said dryly. "It's not even a question of whether you're a weirdo or not anymore. It's a question of how big of a weirdo you are."

"I acknowledge that," Kai said, "I'm trying to fix it, with… mixed results."

She slowly began to lose the ability to care about being weird herself as she adopted the position of salute from the anime _Attack on Titan_.

"Then let your friend Haruka-senpai tell you how not to be an even BIGGER weirdo." She said, her right arm bent and her right hand curled into a fist over her heart.

Kai chuckled faintly.

"You're being a bit weird yourself, aren't you?" He pointed out.

"Only because you're rubbing off on me." Kokona crossed her arms at him, before remembering Dorama, her smile faltering faintly, but her keeping it up regardless.

She'd probably done the whole salute thing because of how he'd acted towards the former president of the Drama Club, she thought to herself.

In that time, when Kokona was a bit more of a rookie in the club, she could remember how the old president had talked to him about how melodramatic he acted.

At first, he said he was only doing it for fun, until eventually, it became like a normal thing for him to act so zany and strange, swapping persona for persona according to how he felt in any given situation.

At one point, he'd apparently become a fan of _Attack on Titan_ , with him giving out the salute whenever he wanted to make it clear he had made a goal he had in mind his personal mission, and, despite his weirdness, his overall extroverted nature made him a well-liked member of the Drama Club.

Kokona was secretly jealous of Dorama during that time, when he could so easily become a popular person among a group of people by simply being himself.

Yet, like all the other people in the Drama Club, they'd eventually started to like him a great deal, to the point that his presence could be felt in the club in contrast to when he was gone.

If she hadn't known him personally, Kokona was rather certain she'd envy Dorama a great deal for how he could be so popular, yet fully be himself in the process.

He hadn't been like her, who struggled to find and, from there, maintain, friendships for the majority of her life.

One of the reasons Kokona valued Saki so much was because of how she had been the first person not to bully or tease Kokona during that time when she refused to go to school because of how relentlessly everyone bullied her.

Because of that, when Kokona's mother had given her the inspiration to keep trying, and to ignore all the people around her, Saki had become her first and closest friend.

Kokona's smile grew faint as she thought back to this time.

It was strange, really, how they could ever be friends for so long, Kokona thought.

Needless to say, Kokona wasn't the least bit saddened by the fact that they'd been friends for nearly over a decade – it was quite the opposite, in all honesty – given that it was incredibly rare for a person to ever maintain a friendship past elementary school, and even in those cases, when they were so close, but she often wondered if she was a burden on Saki, socially.

Their band of friends had different likes and dislikes, as with any group of people, and Saki tended to be the primary reason for it being as cohesive a group as it was then.

With a flicker of sadness entering her expression, Kokona mentally realized that she most likely WAS a burden on Saki.

So many things Saki had done, she'd done in Kokona's interest, even going as far as begging administrators to keep them in the same classes, if it were at all possible, always being that helpful person to lend a friendly ear to her problems, never asking for anything in return.

Saki had been like the sister she'd never had, Kokona thought with a bitter smile.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Kai's voice brought her out of her thoughts, and Kokona quickly nodded.

"Yeah… I just… I was just thinking about Saki."

"Miyu-senpai?"

Kokona nodded again.

"What about her? It looked like you were pretty deep in thought."

"Yeah," Kokona agreed without even trying to deny it to herself.

She once again had forgotten the rather gruesome habit she'd formed of merrily forgetting her problems so easily, she thought to herself with a mental sigh.

"I was just thinking about… how good of a friend she's been to me." Kokona spoke, her voice sad. "I kind of feel bad, since she's always been such a good person, and I never really told her how much I appreciated that part of her."

"Well," Kai smiled up at the ceiling, "now you know what to do the next time you see her."

The melancholy of her smile faded, and she nodded, determinedly.

"I also want to thank you." Kokona added. "You've been a good friend too, even if I tried pushing you away at first."

Kai flushed, then rubbed the back of his head.

"Don't mention it." He responded simply. "I've only been doing what a friend would."

Kokona's smile became nostalgic as she thought back to when she'd first acknowledged Saki as her friend at Kai's words.

During that time, Kokona had been sitting to herself at a bench at her school before a field trip.

One of the rules of most field trips had been for one to always have a buddy partner with them for the duration of the trip, and Kokona, due to lacking friends who would seek her out as a potential buddy, simply sat in a secluded space to herself, waiting for the one who had the unlucky displeasure of being her buddy for the trip get forced onto her so they could get things moving along.

She remembered how it had been a relatively warm day then, despite the fact that rain had stopped falling only minutes ago, leaving behind the faint stench of acid in its wake.

Kokona, along with many other students, wore a school issued jacket despite the warmness of her surroundings, her trying to pass the time by aimlessly drawing whatever was on her mind.

By that time, despite Kokona's mother telling her to keep trying, she'd somehow known for certain that, if she did try for the trip, she'd just spend half the bus ride perpetually failing to get into a conversation her trip buddy would have, normally with another pair of students who were their REAL buddies.

As a result, she was understandably lacking in excitement when a cyan haired girl had come to stand in front of her curiously.

"What are you drawing?" Saki leaned forward to see the picture, yet Kokona didn't even react after a moment.

"I'm just drawing a cat." Kokona replied, her knowing the drawing sucked but still trying to preoccupy herself.

"That's cool." Saki said faintly, and in hindsight, Kokona was surprised by how mistrusting of people she'd become, to immediately assume Saki was going to follow up the compliment with an insult.

When none came, Kokona would relax her tense muscles uncertainly, Saki watching her draw the cat in simple, innocent curiosity.

"Do you have a buddy?" Saki asked, her voice hesitant.

Kokona mentally sighed.

It had been Saki's turn to do the deed, she thought then.

"No." She said, though her voice and expression were both knowing as she looked up at Saki. "Are you asking me because all your friends don't have one?"

Saki gave a surprised expression.

"But… you're my friend, right?"

Kokona's expression reflected Saki's.

"Why would you say you're my friend?"

"Because we are." Saki said, though the uncertainty remained on her face due to Kokona questioning it. "Don't friends choose each other for buddies for trips?"

"Yes. I just don't get why you're asking to be my buddy though." Kokona clarified.

"I'm just doing what any friend would." Saki said, and Kokona's eyes widened faintly.

"O-Okay then…"

When the time came for the people without partners had to be paired together, the teacher was surprised, but pleasantly so, when they'd realized that Kokona hadn't been weeded out that time.

At first, Kokona was skeptic of Saki's intentions, but that skepticism and suspicion generally faded away as time passed, when the idea that maybe, just MAYBE, Saki would've been completely different from all of her past partners came to her mind.

And for the entire trip, through and through, Saki had proven that idea right.

It was only when she returned home, greeted by her father, that she realized how broadly she'd been smiling on the way home, in contrast to the blank expression she always wore.

For the first time since going to school, Kokona had had fun with her buddy.

That day had marked their friendship, and looking back on it all, Kokona was amazed by how little they'd changed, both her and Saki.

It was in the memory of this that Kokona found it within herself to smile happily.

"I hope we can be friends," she said in the present to Kai, "for a long time."

"Same here." Kai nodded faintly.

* * *

After leaving from the nurse's office for "a good, hard rubbing" as the nurse put it, and leaving the school, the walk home was like the morning; relatively quiet.

When she finally entered her home after saying a short farewell to Kai, Kokona looked around the house a bit and sighed softly, walking forward and looking into the living room.

"Dad?" She said softly, and she saw the man himself looking up at her while cleaning after himself.

He looked rather weary and stressed, eyes a bit droopy, but his face lit up upon him seeing her.

"Hey Kokona." He said, voice tired. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing a bit better than usual." Kokona said, smiling faintly.

"Were you with one of your friends?" Her father asked.

Kokona nodded firmly.

"Was it Saki by any chance?" Her father asked her.

She blinked, then shook her head.

"No, why do you ask?"

"Her mother just called a few minutes ago." He said, looking to the phone. "She said she was getting a little worried, since Saki had promised she'd come straight home today, instead of going for club activities."

"Oh." Kokona shook her head. "I don't know where she is. I haven't seen her since this morning, to be honest."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded.

"I see." Her father gave a short sigh. "Well… her mother's a bit worried. Do you think you can call Saki, to check where she is?"

Kokona's smile faded with worry, but she nodded, her pulling out her phone at that second and calling Saki's phone number.

It rang several times, but there was no answer.

* * *

When Saki would wake up, she would feel incredibly drowsy.

Looking up slowly, she'd look around herself, finding that she was in a dark room she didn't recognize, her so loopy that she couldn't react appropriately.

She only looked down at the feeling of her leg getting bound to something, Saki staring down at the girl in front of her, before her eyes widened in realization as she tried getting up from the chair she sat in in that moment, only to realize her other leg, arms and abdomen were tightly wrapped up in rope.

"W-Wha…?" Saki said intelligibly, the girl who looked up at her making her stare back.

Ayano said nothing to her, grey eyes empty as she focused her attention back to Saki's leg, her tightening the rope around the chair leg before she rose to her feet, her looking tired and sweaty.

"Wh-Where… am I…?" Saki asked.

Ayano gave no manner of response, only turning away, her too exhausted to even muster the will to answer, her climbing up the steps as Saki whimpered faintly, fearfully, trying to ask the same question again to the girl's back, her not caring as she ascended the steps, going to bed on account of it being well past midnight at that point.

* * *

 **A/N: Aaaaand done.**

 **I honestly thought I'd have this up a while ago, but I more or less wanted to just wait for the "Matchmaking" video to crop itself up before writing any further.**

 **But, like a lot of things I've realized while writing this story, I somehow very accurately predicted things would be a certain way.**

 **Most of the other "things" include the "death by fire" murder method, the fact that Kokona finds the Occult Club creepy, that Kai wouldn't (deleted due to spoilers), among other things.**

 **However, as I write this, I must honestly say I've also found myself getting caught up in roleplaying on the one active forum for Yandere Simulator.**

 **It uh... got a little chaotic on that end, and the chaos drew me deeper in.**

 **So that's the primary reason half of this thing wasn't written over the summer, in all honesty, other than me taking classes so I could graduate from high school earlier. ( _Yay_!)**


	15. Comfort

_She had a tired look about her, now that he thought about it._

 _Her head hung itself heavily, eyes downcast towards the ground, yet she seemed to move with a sense of urgency._

 _The movement seemed forced, and yet, there was something that looked incredibly off about her._

 _Despite every fiber in him feeling relief at the sight of the cyan haired girl being there, being okay, something inside of him still felt a large deal of worry._

 _What exactly had happened to her over these past few days?_

 _He wanted to ask this, yet, for some reason…_

 _A wave of dizziness washed over his head, and his eyes widened strongly as he watched the girl approach him._

 _"_ _What…?"_

* * *

Kai's eyes snapped open once more, him gazing up at the ceiling.

"… Miyu-senpai?" He wondered briefly.

What exactly had happened? he wondered.

Saki, as far as he knew, seemed like a rather mature, nice person.

Yet, in that vision…

"… why did she look so broken?" He wondered briefly as he sat up in his bed, rubbing his eye softly, him looking to his left, seeing his roommate sleeping next to him.

He looked to his right, seeing the window inside of the room, seeing that it was still night time.

He sighed heavily, holding his forehead in his hand.

"I hope they're both safe." He said softly, him laying back down, him being rather tired after helping his boss' soon to be ex-wife to move in with him and Sekai the afternoon before.

This was until he realized he saw the light of his phone vibrating with the light now on.

Gazing at it, Kai managed to muster the willpower to reach over and pick up the device, gazing into it.

 _You wouldn't know where Saki is, would you?_

Despite this being sent in the middle of the night, Kokona had just sent it after several hours of calling, texting and searching, her not stopping until she could was too tired to do anything anymore.

During that time, Kokona spent the next few hours lying awake in bed, her worried mind trying to think of different ideas for where her friend might've gone, until she finally became desperate enough to actually ask Nasir if he knew where Saki was.

For all she knew, he might've known, she thought.

Yet, with his response, she realized that she was only being hopeful at this point.

Thankfully, Kai wasn't snarky with his reply, despite it being close to two o'clock in the morning.

 **I don't, sorry.  
Why do you ask Haruka-senpai? Is Miyu-senpai okay?**

It was then that Kokona realized just how worried she was, as she assessed the situation, and thought of the actual chances of Saki being with Kai.

She'd already asked her other friends in her group if they knew, but they were no more helpful than he would've been.

Perhaps her asking Kai, and him not knowing, marked the end of all hope she had of finding Saki herself.

 _I wish I knew._

Kokona sighed as she sent this reply, turning over in her bed as she stared at her phone.

 _She went missing today, and I'm trying to figure out where she might be._

 **Really?  
What happened?**

 _I don't know.  
I've looked everywhere, tried everything  
I still can't find her_

 **I'm sorry to hear that.**

Kokona didn't have it in her to reply.

She was just too exhausted, physically and mentally.

 **This has been a hard week for you.**

"…No shit Sherlock." Kokona said softly.

 **But I promise, it'll get better soon.**

How could he promise something like that?

His life was threatened on a day-to-day basis; he'd said himself that it didn't show any signs of letting up.

Was he just trying to give her fake hope? Kokona wondered, anger bubbling up within her as she gripped her phone tightly.

 **Have you ever prayed before?**

 _No._

 **I'll pray for Miyu-senpai's safety.  
Could you do it with me, since you're up?**

 _What's prayer going to do?_

Kokona said this with a mental voice filled with pessimism.

What was the point in praying at this point?

It was obvious at this point that all things good were just there to be taken away, to remind her of how shitty the world was.

First her mother, then her decent financial situation, her happy and sober father, her sense of innocence/virginity, the ability to feel completely safe about being alone on a roof, the trust she had in her so called "friends" to always be there for her, the security to eat her own lunch without it being potentially poisoned, her right to have a romantic liking for someone, and now…

 **It'll do better than worrying over Miyu-senpai, right?**

 _No._

She could almost feel him pausing in surprise.

 **What makes you so sure?**

 _Do you think praying does anything?_

 **Why do you ask?**

 _Because you could be praying to no one.  
You could just be thinking you want something good to happen, and you pray for it, like it'll actually happen._

 **This coming from someone who's never prayed a day in her life.**

 _It doesn't mean I'm wrong._

 **It doesn't mean you're right either.  
If you've never prayed for anything before, this is as good a time to start as any.**

Kokona wouldn't retort anything, as Kai called her a second later.

Reluctantly picking up, Kokona brought the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Kokona-senpai?" Kai said worriedly.

It was then that Kokona realized that, for all the anger she felt, she was crying.

"Yeah? What?" She asked, her voice cracked.

"Would you be willing to pray with me?"

"What's the point?" Kokona asked again. "I don't even believe in God or anything."

"I won't try to force you to. I'm just asking you to pray." Kai's voice was firm, but gentle. "I usually pray whenever I feel worried. I thought it might help you too."

"I don't want to pray." Kokona said softly.

"You never know. It could help."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know that prayers actually helped me in the past."

"How?"

"By me being there to help you." Kai explained to the girl. "A little after we first met, in the Cooking Club, you almost died. You got pushed off the roof, and, as unbelievable as it might've been… I was there, and you survived. The same with you getting set on fire and your food getting poisoned. But before all of that, I prayed for God to keep you safe, and even if there've been a few close calls, it's obvious that the prayer worked, don't you think?"

Kai stood outside of his apartment complex at that point, minding the night sky as he spoke.

Kokona thought back to the first time they'd met proper.

Kai had come off a little bit like how Riku Soma had when the latter had greeted her that day, seeming to not be sure what to say, and ending up being awkward about whether he could join that club or not.

It was almost baffling to think the person who'd she thought was socially awkward would be the person to accidentally save her life minutes later.

(It still sounded so ridiculous to her that such a thing – someone saving another's life on accident – was possible, even when alone accounting for the fact that it had really happened to her.)

She didn't respond for a long time, and yet, when she did, she spoke softly.

"But still… Saki…" Her voice trembled faintly. "She's… she's gone now. I don't know where she is. She could be hurt, alone, or… or worse."

He sighed softly as he looked down.

"I understand if you're concerned. I am too. There's no telling if the prayer will work or not. After all, humans don't control God."

He stopped speaking for a moment.

"Please… please pray with me, Kokona-senpai. It's obvious that you two care about each other. That's why… I know how hard this must be for you. I believe that I could help you because of that one prayer I made for you… because I believe in that God who said I should love you. Love you enough to give up my life for you, if need be. Saki's your friend too, so… I want us both to able to do that. I want us both to be able to do all we can to help her. Even if it's an indirect kind of help."

"… okay." Kokona sighed. "I just… I just don't want to lose anyone anymore. One of my club members… he died because of me. I… I'm just scared. I'm scared of dying, scared of _other_ people dying, of being _alone_ , and… I just don't know what to do." She curled her body into a tighter ball. "About ANY of this. Sometimes, I… I just want it all to end. I want things back to normal. I don't want to feel alone anymore."

"But you _aren't_ alone. And... you never _will_ be. I won't let that happen." Kai promised firmly. "No matter how hard it is, no matter how many times people try to bring you down, I'll… I'll _still_ be with you. Even it's the entire world that's against you, I'll _still_ be your friend through it all. We'll get through this together… and, with Miyu-senpai."

"… Why would either of you want to be friends with me?" Kokona asked. "Why, even after all this? How can you promise something like that, when you know how bad my life is?"

It was then that Kokona realized she had never truly wanted Kai to be her friend, given all the trouble it seemed to cause him.

He was a good person, there was no denying that for her, especially with how he felt about things.

He deserved better friends than her, she thought.

All she could offer him was layers upon layers of angst, trauma, and guilt, while he had to endure it, all with that same happy outlook of his all the time.

Everything was against her, and it seemed like all the good things that blinded her to that fact that were getting taken away one by one.

Why was he trying to keep up that illusion?

Why was he there, sustaining that barrier against despair he had tried to give her, the one reminder of her hope for a "happy end" to all of this?

"I mean…" Kokona closed her eyes. "I'm just a magnet for trouble and stress. Even my Dad would agree with me, even if he won't say it to my face. Just look at how much pain and effort you put in to help me sometimes… why bother with me?"

"Because you're worth it." Kai said simply.

When she didn't respond, he continued.

"You're a wonderful person Kokona. Being able to see you being happy, being able to see you have fun… both of those things make it worth it. Sure, the time's been rough, but you're just not having a good week. With all that's happened, you NEED someone you can talk to and rely on. And, again, this might be a trying time, but we all go through those. You're still worth every ounce of effort I'd go through, or have to go through."

"But how are so sure?" Kokona asked. "You know the things I've done… and how there are people who would like it better if I was just some sex doll or a corpse… It's like your God's trying to punish me. I bet even Saki would've been better off if she hadn't known me."

Kai sighed heavily.

"God isn't punishing you." He said earnestly. "Bad things don't always happen because of God. Bad things happen because they just DO. People try to fornicate, people die, people try to kill other people, et cetera. The reason's not always going to be on God."

He sighed.

"What's happening to you _isn't_ divine retribution. It's just life trying to bring the worst out of you. But you're still you, even after all of that. Please, stop blaming yourself for this. It ISN'T your fault most of those things happened. You couldn't have _known_ that any of this would've happened. You couldn't have _known_ you liking someone could've led to someone being out to kill you. You couldn't have known you being a model for some old man would've led to what it did. You _couldn't have known_ to look after Miyu-senpai to make sure she didn't disappear. Bad things just happen."

"… okay. I'm sorry." Kokona sighed. "I just… I don't know anymore. I don't understand how I feel… and I don't know what to do anymore… I… I wish I could do _more_. But… I can't. I know I shouldn't blame myself for all the things happening… but I just… don't know what else to _do_."

"… I feel the same way sometimes." Kai sighed. "But all people have limits. Sometimes… no matter how much we wish we could change it… there's sometimes nothing that you can do to help."

Kokona gave a shaky breath in response.

"I know this is hard," he said gently, "but we can get through this. I know we can."

"… okay." Kokona sobbed softly, voice lowered to a whimper. "… Okay."

She sniffled a small bit, then spoke softly.

"Thank you." She said softly. "You're… a good friend Nasir."

"I'm just doing what any simple friend would do." Kai replied, him smiling faintly.

A moment of silence passed between them, and Kai glanced towards the sky, up at the stars.

"Maybe, when you see Miyu-senpai again, you can do something with her, to take your mind off all of this." Kai said softly.

Kokona sighed a bit from the other side.

"Maybe. I just… I just hope she's okay, wherever she is."

"Me too." Kai said as he gazed at the stars. "Are you feeling tired?"

"I do." Kokona said softly.

"Do you want me to sing you a lullaby?" He offered.

"… if you think it'll help."

"Okay." Kai leaned against the wall as he put the phone on speaker. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Kokona replied.

Thinking for a moment, Kai began to sing the song in English.

 _"_ _Rest my child and peace attend thee,  
All through the night.  
Guardian angels, God will send thee,  
All through the night._

 _Soft the drowsy hours are creeping  
Hill and vale, in slumber sleeping,  
I my loving vigil keeping  
All through the night._

Kokona closed her eyes slowly, hugging herself in bed.

 _"_ _While the moon, her watch is keeping  
All through the night  
While the weary world is sleeping  
All through the night_

 _O'er the spirit gently stealing  
Visions of delight revealing  
Breathes a _pure _and holy feeling  
All through the night."_

Kai slowly closed his eyes as well, voice growing softer.

 _"_ _Love, to thee, my thoughts are turning  
All through the night  
All for thee, my heart is yearning,  
All through the night._

 _Through sad fate our lives may sever  
Parting will not last forever,  
There's a hope that leaves me never,  
All through the night."_

Kokona slowly reopened her eyes, her sighing softly.

"… thank you." She said.

"Did it help?" Kai asked her.

"Yes." Kokona closed her eyes and spoke softly.

"Okay." Kai said, smiling softly. "Try to get some rest Kokona. It won't do Saki any good to keep yourself awake."

"Yeah," Kokona nodded, "I'll try resting."

"Good night." Kai said to the girl.

"Good night." Kokona replied, before ending the call.

Kai sighed to himself, gazing up at the stars.

"I hope I'm actually helping with this." He said to the heavens. "She's gone through so much already…"

He lowered his head, then closed his eyes.

"Lord," he said softly, "please keep Miyu-senpai safe."

He spoke the ending to his prayer, then went back inside.

* * *

" _There's_ that pretty smile." Kai would say hours later as Kokona left her house and saw him there, her smile expressing her happiness to see him.

"Thanks." Kokona said, though her smile lowered a bit as she remembered her calling him, along with her reason for calling in the first place. "Sorry about last night though."

"It's fine." Kai shook his head. "I'm guessing the police are involved at this point?"

"Yes." Kokona nodded, then beginning to walk to school. "The school's got a few dumb rules, but it doesn't matter when it's outside of school."

"Let's hope they can find her soon." Kai said, to which Kokona nodded.

"Still though, it's hard to think there'd really be a rule keeping police from doing their jobs if something happens in school."

"The Bible says "the powers that be, be of God," but yes, that rule is honestly ridiculous. Do you think there's something there that they want kept secret there?"

"You mean the fact that there's a killer on the loose?" Kokona questioned.

"I think they've got that covered already." Kai said with a tone of mirth, despite the dark nature of the subject. "I was wondering more something scandalous or something like that."

"You don't actually think there's a secret there, though?" Kokona asked. "Something worth cutting a murder investigation short?"

Kai shrugged.

He believed in a religion where God had created the language barrier – and then arbitrarily destroyed it for an afternoon – and lived in a world where there existed someone was willing to kill others for the sake of keeping a boy she liked from dating anyone.

A secret someone valued enough to put someone else's crimes at stake of never being punished would be a terrible thing, but not out of the realm of possibility.

"It's just me wondering why anyone would really want to make a rule like that, given the reason it was made in the first place." Kai elaborated. "It just seems so… _counterproductive_."

He summed up his feelings in a word that explained his confusion with the way things were.

Kokona couldn't agree more.

"Yeah… I mean, really, what's the point in something like that?" Kokona wondered. "Is that the Headmaster's way of telling everyone to just forget about it, if someone dies?"

"Maybe." Kai shook his head. "Just another reason that we can't be too careful in school."

"It really makes me feel a bit regretful about some of the things I've done, especially because of something like that." Kokona sighed heavily.

"What do you mean?"

Kokona's gaze lowered to the ground.

"It's… the thing I was doing before." She admitted. "With your boss."

"Oh… but, Kokona…"

Just as he was about to assure her not to blame and beat herself up over the matter, Kokona shook her head, though she seemed to be doing it to herself more than anything.

"It's the reason I was doing… "that" in the first place." Kokona said.

Kai looked at her curiously, and she sighed again.

"I wasn't able to find work or anything, and I needed the money," Kokona said softly, "because of… you know, fees and tuition in Akademi."

"Yeah." Kai nodded.

He'd managed to get a scholarship that paid for his tuition and the like (thank God, he thought), but that didn't mean anything for others like Kokona.

"That was sort of the reason for going through with it, rather than the reason itself." Kokona explained, looking down further. "I just… kept telling myself the same thing. "Do it for the money, do it for the money, do it for the money…" but I really just couldn't take it anymore at one point. That wasn't my reason for thinking about doing it in the first place though…"

"… do you mind me asking why? Why you did it?" Kai asked after a moment, voice gentle.

"I don't." Kokona shook her head, though she seemed to be trying to compose herself. "My… REAL reason for wanting to do it, at first, was because… I felt sort of lonely."

"Lonely?" Kai asked.

Kokona reached up, gripping the band of her satchel tightly, as though to steel herself as a flicker of sadness entered her expression.

"Yeah… at one point, I was really lonely. My mother had died, and my father was always too tired from work to really spend time with me." Kokona said. "Even when I tried spending time with my friends to take my mind off of it, I still felt alone… and that scared me."

Kokona looked up at him then, Kai listening intently.

"That's… probably my biggest fear, honestly." Kokona admitted in a small voice. "I'd just get to thinking, about how my dad could die at any time, and… other than how much it'd make me want to cry, it scared me. I didn't want to lose anyone… and Mom dying made me realize I could lose EVERYONE. So, because I didn't want to be afraid of that, because I didn't want to be alone, I… I started to go on compensated dates with other guys."

Kokona closed her eyes.

"I felt… wrong, for doing it, at first. I was scared of how badly it could've gone, how badly things could've taken a turn for the worse. But the way I could go out with someone, and do things with them, _regular_ things," she hastily added, though Kai understood that she didn't do the OTHER sort of "that" until his boss had done it, "and then… get paid for it… I really liked it. It made me… not as afraid of being alone as I was then. I still worried from time to time, but… I think, part of me just enjoyed spending time with others at one point. I just thought about how no one was getting hurt by it, and how it was helping me with my problems at home, and I just went with that."

"I… think I understand." Kai said softly, voice reflecting this in its understanding undertone.

"I say all that to say… thank you." Kokona finished. "Even if I know the worst can happen to either of us, it's… still nice. Knowing I've got such a good friend behind me."

She smiled his way as she said this, and Kai flushed faintly at her words.

"It's – it's nothing." He waved it off. "Just doing what any good friend would do."

Kokona's smile broadened.

"Then, no matter what you might think, the world needs more people like you."

Kai's gaze lowered itself, and he smiled.

"Thank you Kokona." He said.

Even if the world was probably better off if people like him weren't around, the idea that she appreciated him to that extent made him happy.

It was with this in mind that the two friends went off to school.

Such a cheery atmosphere wasn't a universal one however.

* * *

"I hate you," Saki cried, though her voice was dry, it lacking the moisture that would probably be afforded it if she drank something, "I _hate you_!"

The person in front of her didn't respond, her fingers pressing into the sides of Saki's cheeks as she tried forcing her mouth open, eyes narrowed as Saki tried to get out from the chair she was tied up to.

Ayano then tried forcing the contents of the blender of food she'd made down Saki's throat, the girl struggling as she tried not to eat the food, despite the hunger she felt.

This was going to take a while, Ayano thought to herself.

Ayano probably wouldn't see her Senpai today, if Saki kept being this difficult.

Regardless of this, she continued to try pouring the blended food down Saki's throat.

This came with poor results, as the girl struggled again, only to cough as the liquid went down the wrong hole, Saki leaning forward and coughing grossly, eyes closed in pain as she retched the food back up.

Ayano sighed, looking away.

"You're making this more difficult than it has to be." She said, her walking out of the basement that had no windows with this.

Saki recovered slowly, her gaze aimed towards the ground, her breathing heavily as she tried her best not to panic, her failing nonetheless.

Her eyes darted around, searching desperately for a way out, but her finding nothing in the midst of the monotonous basement.

Saki only raised her head up at the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs, the girl's eyes widening in horror when she realized Ayano carried a hammer in hand.

"Since you don't want to eat, I'll force it down your throat in another way." Ayano said as she approached her, Saki's eyes widening as she tried forcing her way out of the chair, the ropes holding her despite this.

"N-No!" Saki cried, the chair scraping against the floor as she tried to get away from the sociopath that sat in front of her. "Get away from me!"

Ayano went behind her, and Saki craned her head around to see what she was doing.

Ayano grasped both ends of her long, curled pig tails, then forcibly pulled them down, wrapping them around the back legs of the wooden chair, before pulling Saki's pig tails as far back as possible, Saki giving an ignored yell of pain as Ayano began tying her hair together in a bow, Saki unable to pull her head down yanking her hair on the chair legs.

With this done, Ayano rose to her feet, grasping the hammer tightly as Saki looked up at her with a horrified gaze.

She raised the hammer up, trying to open up Saki's lips, but the girl, desperate for her not to go through with the act, or at least to prolong the inevitable, opened her mouth up and bit down as hard on Ayano's finger as she could, her drawing blood but not caring.

It was only when the hammer swung down and struck her forehead that Saki let go of Ayano's finger, it very badly bruised as Ayano held it.

"You're just trying to make this difficult." Ayano said, voice greatly pained as she spoke through grit teeth.

With Saki unconscious, Ayano scowled, mentally berating herself.

If Saki had head trauma, this would've been pointless, she thought.

Regardless, her being unconscious made the task of breaking her teeth in less difficult, she thought.

With this, she began to go about feeding her kidnapped victim.


	16. Detemmienation

As he sat in his classroom, come lunch time, Kai was very uneasy.

Before class had started, he'd taken to looking towards the back of the classroom repeatedly, always seeing the empty seat that belonged to Ayano.

For all his time in class, he heavily questioned why she wasn't in class that day.

If it were anyone else, he'd almost certainly be fine with such a detail, and probably would have simply dismissed it as them being absent for the day.

However, in this case, such a thing wasn't an option, given the events of the past few days of his life.

For rather blatant reasons, despite their talk the day before, he felt obligated to be certain of where Ayano was, now that he knew how far she'd go for her crush.

This thought made Kai sigh heavily at the idea of such a ridiculous and foolhardy reason to kill other people.

Regardless of this, his lack of knowledge eventually made him realize how worried he felt, when he considered the worst-case scenario.

Upon his brain considering said worst-case scenario, he immediately tried diffusing his line of thinking by brainstorming reasons, SOME sort of explanation for why Ayano hadn't come to class that day.

It was then that he remembered that she'd be locked out because of the school gate, and he held his head in his hand.

That would definitely explain her absence, Kai thought to himself.

However, he also realized that worrying himself to death wouldn't solve much of anything, and he promptly shook his head of those thoughts as he rose from his seat come lunch time.

With his first instinct being to check on Kokona, Kai left to go up the stairs, feet carrying him swiftly there, steps making low thuds as he climbed them hurriedly, and as he tried to go to Kokona's classroom as quickly as he could, his eyes reflected relief upon him reaching the first door to the class.

Kai had noticed Kokona sitting idly at her desk while looking at her phone, and he immediately skimmed around the hall for Ayano, not finding her to his immediate right or left.

"Alright," Kai said to himself, looking to Kokona, entering the classroom and approaching her, "hey Kokona, are you doing alright?"

The purple haired girl looked up to him, her nodding.

"I'm doing fine. I think I'm just feeling tired today." Kokona said.

"I understand." Kai nodded, pulling the chair out of the desk next to her and sitting down. "It's been a long week for you."

"It has," Kokona murmured, her rereading the texts she sent him twelve hours beforehand then, "but... it'll get better eventually."

She read this from one of his texts of encouragement to her from the night before, and she sighed heavily.

"Yeah." Kai nodded. "Did you bring lunch with you today?"

"... honestly, no." Kokona shook her head. "My bento got poisoned, so I'm not sure what to do with it. I feel like I'd have to clean it up and then throw out the sponge or something. It really sucks too. My mother bought me that bento in middle school, and now I'm not even sure if I can use it again."

Kai sympathized with her saddened expression.

"Sorry to hear that." He said, recognizing the sentimental value of the bento in how he valued the things he could remember from his own late parents.

To lose something like that would definitely be painful.

"Do you want to share lunch with me again today?" He asked her, bringing up the bento he'd carried with him, as he feared the idea of Ayano attempting to poison his food in turn, in an attempt to change the subject. "That girl hasn't gotten to mine yet."

The key word being "yet", he thought dryly.

"... if you wouldn't mind." Kokona said softly.

Kai smiled warmly.

"Anything for my friend."

Kokona smiled faintly.

"... you really shouldn't say that so easily." She told him.

"Why not?" Kai quirked an eyebrow, smile falling to a look of curiosity.

"Because... people will try to take advantage of you. They'll probably call you their friend, but just end using you."

"Ah," Kai nodded in understanding, "sorry, I guess I haven't had enough experience with people to know that."

"It's fine, you're not doing anything wrong," Kokona said, before giving a smile no less warm than Kai's, "I'm just looking out for my friend."

His expression seemed to light up at this, and the fact that calling him her friend was enough to make Kai happy made Kokona laugh faintly to herself, the feeling of laughing feeling so wonderful that it grew into a faint giggle.

He became sheepish with this.

"Thanks for saying that," he said honestly, "is it weird that it makes me happy to hear that?"

She burst into laughter with this, holding a hand over her mouth as she closed her eyes.

"I guess so?" Kai wondered, chuckling faintly in turn.

"Sorry," Kokona said, "it IS sort of weird, but... not in a BAD way. I just think it's sort of cute, that it takes so little to make you happy."

"Maybe. Just seeing you doing okay is all it takes to make me feel happy." Kai shrugged. "Though... I guess that'd probably give people the wrong idea about us, wouldn't it? If I say things like that." He added for clarification.

"Maybe." Kokona admitted, before grinning. "But I know you don't mean it like that. Still, it makes me happy to have someone always happy to see me. It makes me feel special."

"You are special though." Kai said.

She smiled.

"Thanks." She said, genuine alleviation filling her.

This sort of companionship was different than it had been with the other girls, Kokona thought to herself.

She had lived the past several months in fear of what would happen if her friends knew of her compensated dating, and she wasn't even sure then that they were still completely with her.

With Kai however, she had no such secret, with him knowing of her actions and accepting her anyways.

This, coupled with how greatly he genuinely cared for her, made her feel a sense of ease around him.

"No problem." Kai smiled faintly, before standing up. "Do you want to go somewhere else to eat this?"

He was referring to the bento, and Kokona nodded.

"Sure."

They eventually decided to eat near the fountains placed around the school, as benches stood there.

"It's nice to see how they decorated this place." Kai said as he looked to the fountain sitting besides them, bushels of roses sitting near them as well.

"I can agree with that." Kokona said, eying the bushels of roses in a pensive manner.

Kai watched her for a moment, and he wasn't sure if she was staring off into space or not, her gazing at one of the rose bushels regardless of this fact.

"I guess you like flowers?" Kai asked jokingly.

Kokona snapped to attention with this, and she looked to him, as if abruptly awakening from a trance.

"U-Uh..." She stammered.

"You doing okay?" Kai asked, him more curious than anything.

"Y-Yeah," Kokona flushed in embarrassment, and Kai noted she looked like she wanted to kick herself, "I just... Have a bad habit of staring off into space at times."

"I see." Kai said softly. "I guess that's something you'll have to work on."

"It's not my fault," Kokona denied jokingly, "I only do it when I don't feel worried. It's your fault Nasir."

"My fault?" Kai stifled the urge to laugh. "How?"

"I feel safe when I'm around you, that's why."

"Awww, if only I knew how to react to that." Kai laughed.

Kokona managed a small chuckle.

"Well... I don't mean to blame you. I'm just sort of awkward when it comes to these sorts of things, joking around with people."

"Maybe, or maybe I'M the awkward one." Kai said. "I'm not exactly well versed into this society after all."

"You don't really corner the market on awkwardness though." Kokona said.

"How do you figure that?" Kai wondered.

"You seem plenty comfortable being yourself." She replied. "You're... _quirky_ , sure, but you just let it out. It's not even enough to say you're doing it to be cute or anything either. You might act differently, but you don't hold back on it. It makes me... sort of jealous and happy at the same time."

"Really?" Kai raised an eyebrow, and Kokona nodded.

"I'm jealous because I was scared of how people would treat me if they... Knew what sort of things I did." Kokona's smile faltered, and she glanced away. "You know... With the compensated dating and all."

She sighed, leaning back and placing her hands on the edge of the back of the bench to support her own weight, gaze turning pensive with thought.

"Honestly, I'm... STILL scared." She admitted. "Because... Even if _you_ managed to stave them off, my friends were pretty convinced I was a slut and all." She glanced over to him. "If they knew the truth... They'd probably just oust me from the group."

"You're that certain of it, huh?" Kai asked, gaze flickering with sympathy.

"Yeah." Kokona sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't have done that. Gone compensated dating."

The water of the fountain to their right filled the silence that followed.

"You're still your own person." Kai said after a moment. "I'm still not entirely convinced they're really your friends. After all, as far as I see it, if someone... REALLY has an understandable reason to do something... _Dishonorable_ , I don't think it's right to make that person suffer socially for it."

Kokona sighed.

"Honestly?" she looked up at the sky then, gaze tired. "This country's way of looking at things sort of IS warped, now that I really think about it."

"What made you come to that realization?" Kai asked curiously.

"You know about the Hiroshima bombings, don't you?" Kokona asked him, still gazing up at the sky.

"I have." Kai nodded. "Why bring them up?"

"Recently," Kokona closed her eyes then, "I've been looking for forums and things... To try and find suggestions for jobs and stuff."

"Any luck finding anything?" Kai asked, and Kokona shook her head.

"I DID read something that disturbed me though." Kokona said. "People who got caught up in the bombing, in some way, were actually made outcasts by society... For basically getting caught up in a bombing that no one had any control over."

Kai listened quietly as she spoke.

"What disturbs me is that... Sometimes, people will outcast you for things that aren't even your fault." Kokona said. "That's... What I learned. A lot of people there were bomb victims, _h_ _ibakusha_ , and... It's just heartbreaking, to hear how hard it is for someone just to find a _job_ , because their _grandparents_ got caught up in a miles wide EXPLOSION that happened over half a century ago and survived. I feel like those people have really gone through enough as is, and yet people just screw things up even _further_ for them."

"... Does that frustrate you?" Kai asked, tone soft.

Kokona lowered her gaze down to her thighs, and she nodded.

"I really just... Can't help but _hate_ this society, after reading something like that. It's bad enough with how foreigners are treated sometimes," she made an aside to add that she meant no offense to Nasir by this, as he was Middle Eastern, but he felt none by it, "but... Sometimes, I think this place is just too focused on some REALLY misguided vision of perfectionism. You don't really get to be yourself, but you have to force yourself to have this stoic mask on all the time. If you don't fall in line with the standards set, you're just someone dragging everyone else down. That's... How it is." Kokona sighed. "And... Maybe that's the root of my jealousy. My jealousy of you."

She looked to him, Kai's eyes on her then.

"I... _Like_ that you don't hide how you feel." Kokona said. "Maybe it's because we're from different places, but that's something I can't help admiring... That you can stare anyone in the face and tell them when they're in the wrong, regardless of who they are."

Kai smiled sheepishly, and rubbed the back of his head.

"I guess I figured that I'm not good at acting." Kai said. ""Why try to live a lie when the truth is obvious?" That was how I thought."

"I can respect that." Kokona grinned. "And... That's why I like you."

She flushed faintly as she realized how this could be misinterpreted.

"N-Not in THAT way though," she added hurriedly.

"Which way are you talking about?" Kai asked innocently, this not being a facade.

"Oh..."

Crap, she'd forgotten that Kai didn't even like her that way, she thought, he wouldn't have taken it the wrong way to begin with.

"Well," Kokona crossed her arms, "you... Know how everyone seems convinced we're dating each other and stuff, or SHOULD be dating?"

Kai glanced up in thought.

It slowly began to dawn on him that most of everyone who knew about his and Kokona's relationship, sans a couple of people, seemed to automatically assume that there was something more than platonic care involved, with even Kokona herself suspecting it.

"... Yeah." Kai nodded.

"That's what I mean, when I say it's not THAT way." Kokona muttered.

"I see. I guess you like me as a friend then?" Kai asked, smiling to her.

"Yeah!" Kokona nodded, glad to clear up the misunderstanding.

"Alright." Kai nodded. "I think it goes without saying I love you as my friend."

Kokona nodded.

It no longer sounded strange for him to say that he loved her, she realized then.

"As for the guy you like in THAT way though..." Kai crossed his arms. "Do you STILL like him in that way?"

The nature of his question was simply to confirm what was already known, she thought.

Kokona blushed faintly, then nodded.

"I do..."

"Do you plan on telling him?" Kai asked her.

Kokona looked down, smile dropping.

"I... DID want to tell him on Friday, but..."

"But...?" Kai tilted his head at her to get a look at her face.

"... Aishi poisoned my favorite bento box, when I made that decision." Kokona replied. "Which... Kind of dampens the motivation, when I just worked myself up to do it. Especially since... Me liking him is the entire reason this started in the first place."

"Aww," Kai hugged her, "sorry to hear that Kokona."

Kokona didn't reply, the thought of Ayano and the weight of the fact that someone was out for her life tiring her out mentally, and she subconsciously leaned into Kai's embrace, closing her eyes as she thought about her promise to herself to do something for the sake of all of her victims.

"It's not your fault." She said, voice a whisper, her mind having been conditioned to feel safe when around Kai, to the point that most of the weight lifted off of her shoulders in that moment.

She then smiled softly.

"Like I said, I wouldn't be here if not for you." She told him. "... I can't thank you enough for all you've done for me."

Kai smiled in turn.

"What are friends for?" He asked.

She nodded her head into his chest.

"Do you want to do it today then, since Aishi's not in school?" Kai asked.

"... I don't know, honestly." Kokona looked up to Kai slowly, smile dropping.

"Whatever you decide is fine. I just want you to be happy." Kai said.

"But... There's still Aishi to worry about." Kokona told him. "I don't want anyone getting hurt, or for me to get hurt myself. I don't know if it'd be worth it."

Kai looked to her, then nodded.

"At least... Try. Don't worry about becoming a girlfriend out of it, just worry about getting the message across to him."

Kokona sighed.

"Even ignoring the possibility of me getting rejected, there's still the problem of him having the chance to saying he likes me too. Because that'll just paint an even BIGGER target on my back."

She shook her head.

"And... besides that," she narrowed her eyes, then looked to Kai, "there really are more important things to focus on right now. I know you want me to be happy Nasir, but... this _isn't_ the time to get involved in some romance. People are DEAD because of this. Whether I blame myself, or Aishi... that's still a fact. I can't just ignore something like that. It's not fair to them for me to be worried about my own happiness. Because... _they_ never got that chance."

She looked down, tears stinging her eyes as she recalled the lost sense of life that the Drama Club once had.

"I'm scared... I'm _scared_ of this," she closed her eyes, admitting this with the faintest quiver in her voice, "but... for Dorama's sake, I HAVE to do something. I can't let someone like Aishi get away with the things she's done up until now." Her hands balled into tight, shaking fists in her lap. "And I'm not going to risk my life for something I can't even _guarantee_ will end well. If I'm going to _die_ , then..."

Shaking, quivering in fear, Kokona looked to Kai, a fierce determination in her gaze.

"I'm going to do it making sure my life meant something MORE than just being another helpless _slut_ desperate for help." Kokona said, the edges of her skirt being balled up in the fists she'd made.

Kai gazed at her in turn, then nodded softly.

"... I understand." He said simply. "And... you're right."

In that moment, he realized his own fallacy.

He had become so determined to prevent her death, and so focused on doing everything to keep her happy, he hadn't truly considered the situation.

He sighed softly.

"... do you feel like it's your fault? That that guy died?" He asked her. "It's... okay to be honest. Your feelings are yours."

Kokona gazed at him, then sighed herself, looking down as she thought of Dorama again, her feeling her body shaking uncontrollably as her eyes stung with tears.

"... I do." She said, and Kai gazed at her.

"... I understand the feeling." He told her, Kokona looking to him, her seeing he'd bowed his head and closed his eyes.

The young man thought back to his own experiences then, of feeling a sense of survivor guilt in light of the deaths of his parents.

He'd spent many years traumatized by the memory, of the image of the people who'd raised him up to be a seven year old toddler hanging from nooses as he laid helpless to do anything.

In that moment, as he recalled the murder of his parents, Kai thought back to his dream vision of Kokona, the one that had spurned his entire longing to prevent her death.

She had been trying to hang herself on a noose then, he remembered that much clearly.

She'd looked so deeply _broken_ in that one moment, as though having come to terms with something, and deciding that killing herself had been the only viable option.

To him, upon his waking up, the dream had done very well to rattle him, to say the least (Sekai still told him to go to a psychiatrist when they had the money to), and the fact that Kokona, the very same girl from her dream, had been a true flesh and blood human sent him into a state of panic, so great in magnitude that he'd likely curl himself into a ball if not for the fact that he prayed to God when he was worried.

Had his trauma led him to getting so invested in Kokona's happiness?

Did he simply want for her to have the sort of life he'd wanted for her - a kind of life Kai could never have - so that she wouldn't have to go through the things he'd gone through?

As he thought back on his actions, he realized that he was trying his best not to let her drive herself to that point, let her mind sink into the level of pain and hardship he couldn't see as fair for her.

In light of this, he realized that this was, dare he say it, the wrong way to go about this situation.

Making Kokona happy, happy enough to forget her problems, when they were all a prevalent part of her life, was no different than trying to sweep a still living snake under a rug, trying to pretend it wasn't going to just crawl out and bite them when they weren't looking.

She wasn't ready to face these dangers, but Kokona had the mental maturity to understand that the problem wasn't going to just magically disappear, especially after so many attempts on her life.

She was afraid in that moment, she'd admitted it herself, but she was willing to face danger instead of hiding away from it while others got hurt.

He looked to her then.

"I've... lost people important to me too." Kai admitted to her. "And... I've even seen them die right in front of me. I wanted you to be happy, Kokona. I didn't want you to feel guilty for something you had no control over. But... I guess that makes me a hypocrite in a way. I've spent most of my life blaming myself for their deaths... when _I_ couldn't do anything to stop it. I don't want you to get hurt in any way... and that's what makes me want to protect you so much. It's not fair to you though. You want Aishi to get the karma she deserves, right?"

Kokona nodded.

"It'll be tough... and it'll be scary... but I respect you for understanding that." Kai said. "And... even if I sound like a broken record at this point, I'll do everything I can to support you, and to put an end to this... _stupid_ situation."

"... Thanks." Kokona said to him softly. "And... when this is over... and when Saki's with us again... we'll go out and celebrate together." She said with a warm smile.

Kai nodded, closing his eyes.

"We'll have to figure out a way to get her to confess... or SOMETHING." Kokona said, lowering her gaze again. "She REALLY deserves to get put in a prison cell. But with the Headmaster keeping the cops off campus, I can't see that happening unless we get solid evidence on her."

She sighed again.

"... why don't we trick her into confessing?" Kai asked.

Kokona looked to him.

"How?"

He began to explain his idea to her, and soon began their plan to stop Ayano's murderous actions completely.


	17. Love Letter

The end of the day found Kokona with a pensive expression, the ringing of the bell over the intercom making her realize the time to take action had come.

She immediately rose to her feet, turning and walking down the aisle of the seats to the person she needed to talk to.

"Hey, Yamada?"

At that moment, Taro Yamada gazed out at the world beyond the window to his side, him looking towards her as her voice returned him to reality, him lowering the hand his head had propped him up by.

"Yes? Is everything okay Haruka?" He asked, him curious as he saw Kokona fold her hands behind her waist.

She managed a small smile, feeling herself flushing faintly, before nodding.

"Yeah," she said, "I'm... sorry to spring this on you, but is your handwriting good?"

"I... _guess_." Taro said with a shrug, eyebrows furrowed as he became slightly confuddled at the strange question. "Why?"

"It's just... A friend of mine's had a crush on someone, and he _really_ wants to confess. But he's a _really_ nervous wreck." Kokona explained. "So I tried thinking of ways to help, and I thought a love letter might be a good way. But... Our handwriting isn't that good."

"Are you sure?" Taro asked, her words and body language telling him where this was going before he heard it.

"Yeah... Would you mind helping him?" Kokona asked him.

Taro crossed his arms as he thought about it.

"My handwriting isn't exactly the best either," he admitted upfront, "but... I'll try."

"You're not too busy?" Kokona brightened up, smiling broadly at him, Taro reaching up and scratching his cheek sheepishly.

"No, I'm really not." He assured her.

It wasn't like he planned on doing anything but browse through clubs until they ended, he thought.

If he was going to waste his time with walking around, he might as well do something productive while he was doing it.

This was Taro Yamada's line of thinking as he agreed to spend his afternoon writing a love letter.

When Kokona would lead him to the library, he quickly spotted the young man sitting at a table, him perking up when Kokona entered with Taro in tow.

"Hey there Kokona." He said, looking to Taro, a sort of accent Taro couldn't place in his voice as he took in his tan colored skin. "You must be Yamada-senpai?"

Before Taro could respond, Kokona grasped her hip whilst cocking her head at him.

"He gets a "senpai", but I can't get one Nasir?" Kokona asked him.

"But don't friends get to call each other by first name?" Nasir asked with a look of innocence that Taro almost didn't realize was feigned at first.

"Maybe when they've known each other for a long time."

"Awww, but I feel like I've known you a long enough time." Nasir pouted.

"It's barely been _four days_." Kokona replied to him, raising her voice, but her smile betraying how she found it somewhat amusing despite herself.

"We should probably keep our voices down." Taro mused to her, Kokona flushing as she realized what she'd done.

"... Darn it Nasir." Kokona muttered, the young man chuckling to himself when he saw her smile remaining despite her blush of embarrassment that were aimed at her from the other people of the library.

"Sorry about that." Nasir said to her, and he aimed his gaze to Taro then. "I take it you're Yamada, Taro?"

Taro nodded to Nasir's question.

"I am. Could you tell me your name?" Taro asked him curiously.

"Nasir, Kai." He said, Kai Nasir giving a warm, welcoming smile to Taro. "It's nice to meet you."

"Same here." Taro said, him looking to the table Kai sat in front of. "Are you the friend Kokona told me about?"

"I'd say so." Kai glanced to Kokona, then back to the Taro. "I guess you're willing to help me?"

Taro nodded, and seeing this, Kai rose to his feet, him pulling chairs out for both of them, him careful to keep them from scraping against the tiled floor beneath them.

"Thanks a lot for the help." Kai said to him. "Sorry if I'm getting in the way of anything you planned for today."

"I didn't plan anything." Taro replied with a shake of his head as he took the seat Kai pulled out for him. "It's no problem."

"I'm glad to hear that." Kai said.

As Kokona took her seat gratefully, Kai sat down, and the three began talking about the contents of the love letter.

The process was so filled with playful joking on Kai's part, with the ensuing conversations so wacky, that Kokona briefly forgot the purpose behind the letter.

* * *

After they finally finished the letter, but left the signature blank ("I'll sign it later." Kai told Taro), Kokona looked over the envelope and letter, and she sighed to herself, the smile she only had to give half effort to keeping up dropping.

"Are you _sure_ you want to go through with this?" Kokona asked Kai as he walked beside her, guiding her home. "I mean... How do you even know she'll take the bait?"

"I mean, I don't know. It's still a gamble, but this is really the best way I could think of." Kai admitted. "I understand you don't like the idea of me being in danger. But we're at risk no matter what we do."

She frowned.

"You mean I'M at risk." Kokona corrected, letting the letter dangle between her fingers as she kept walking, looking forward.

"Alright, _you're_ in danger no matter what we do." He corrected himself with a sigh. "I figured we might as well take advantage of it to do this."

"I guess that makes sense," Kokona said, her tone making her reluctance in admitting so blatant, "I hate the idea of just leaving you by yourself for this is all. I should be there with you when it happens, shouldn't I?" She then shook her head. "Never mind, I guess that's a dumb question."

"No, go ahead," Kai said with a glance to her, "it's okay to be honest when you don't like something."

She glanced to him, then looked down.

"Well, don't get me wrong," she started awkwardly, "I appreciate all the times you've been there for me, stuck up for me. But at this point, I just feel like I'm... taking advantage of that fact. And I hate that THAT's how things are right now. I don't like how this feels. Feeling... Helpless."

Kai listened quietly as Kokona lightly crossed her arms.

"Again, nothing wrong with you," she repeated, "but I just wish I didn't have to do that. I wish you didn't have to worry about keeping me safe."

Kai looked down in thought, then looked back to her.

"There's nothing wrong with that." He told her simply. "I completely understand. I even know how you feel, frankly."

"Really?" Kokona asked him, and Kai nodded. "How?"

"It's..." Kai looked forward again, his gaze becoming a faraway stare. "It was... A _really_ hard time in my life. My parents had just died, but while I was grieving, I was taken in by a man who took in a lot of orphans. During that time though, he..." He closed his eyes. "He'd do so many terrible things to us. And we couldn't do anything about it."

As Kokona listened to the quiet pain and sadness within his voice, she slowly reached up before patting his back in a gesture of comfort.

"I'm sorry that happened." Kokona said softly. "Where are they now? Do you know?"

Kai closed his eyes.

"I do. One day, I met a pastor who had a church, just outside of the town. I told him about our... _situation_." Kai said, raising his hand up and grasping his forearm. "And... Everyone broke out and left."

"What happened to the guy who did everything to you?" Kokona asked.

"He was... Arrested for some of the things he'd had us do." Kai told her.

"I see..."

Noting how he was being rather vague about the nature of what he and the other orphaned children had done, Kokona didn't press the issue.

"Is that why you believe in God now? Because that pastor helped you?" Kokona asked.

Kai shook his head.

"I still believed in God even after that. Some people might stop believing in God after bad things happen, but... It was really the only thing I could cling to in those times."

Kai paused, and his conscious needled at him for not being completely honest.

Realizing this, he sighed softly before adding, "Well, one of two things honestly."

"Two things?" Kokona asked.

"Yes. One was God, and the other was... Revenge." Kai said softly. "During those times, I... I did a lot of things that made sense to me then, but I really regret now."

"Really?" Kokona asked him.

He nodded.

"My parents had been killed right in front of me. Our house had been set on fire while they were sick, and when they crawled their way out, everyone who'd set it in on fire in the first place dragged them off. After that, they were..."

Kai reached up, fingers touching his neck.

Noting how hard it was for him, Kokona grasped his shoulder to get his attention.

"You don't have to tell me, if it's hard for you." Kokona said to him softly.

Kai looked down, before shaking his head.

"I... Want to tell you." Kai said. "I mean... It's only fair, right? All this time I've been hearing about you. I should at least tell you about this."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

He nodded, closing his eyes.

"My parents were hanged." He told her. "And the whole time, I was in the crowd, screaming for them to stop. They never did." He reopened his eyes. "In that moment, I was... Helpless. I couldn't do anything to help them. So I can understand how you feel. Being helpless... It's really a bad feeling."

Kokona looked down.

"I'm... Sorry that happened to you."

"It's not your fault." He shook his head. "I just said that to say... I understand how it feels."

She nodded.

After a few more moments of walking, she looked to him.

"I'll... Put my faith in you." Kokona told him. "In this idea of yours."

"Thank you." Kai said, before gaining the same wry smile as was usual for him. "I'm surprised you weren't on board from the beginning though. Why would you go through the trouble of getting that letter if you weren't?"

"It seemed like it COULD work, and I was desperate." Kokona said, tone miffed as she spoke defensively whilst crossing her arms.

"I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I just thought you'd tell me before now if you agreed with the idea or not." Kai said.

"I'm sorry, it's just... This is _really_ mean, what we're doing to her." Kokona said. "And... I'm nervous."

"Nothing wrong with that." Kai told her, and Kokona sighed while uncrossing her arms.

"You know the way to the police station, right?" Kai asked her.

Kokona told him she did, and after they refined parts of the plan, they tested out the things they needed before they left, Kai saying his goodbyes upon reaching her house, Kokona doing the same as the man prayed for their success.

* * *

As Kokona laid down on her bed several hours later, as nightfall began to start, she perked up when she realized her phone was rumbling, her having forgotten to turn the ringer back on after leaving school.

Looking to the caller ID however, her expression soured, and she promptly ignored it while letting it ring.

It rang over and over again, and in time, she found that he began texting her, that man from before.

Despite this, she didn't care in the slightest, her having made the decision that she would never again let the appeal of money coax her into defiling herself further.

Therefore, when the calls from him finally stopped, Kokona smiled to herself happily, letting herself rest for the night.

* * *

 **A/N:** I apologize for the very long hiatus this story went through, as well as the lack of meat these chapters are getting.

Truth be told, I HAVE tried to write this chapter out several times, and what would normally happen is that either my computer would run into problems, causing me to lose my work, or something would render all the time and effort I put into it moot because it all would get erased and I'd have no way of recovering it.

As with many things, when such things happen, the motivation I feel to even write this chapter just goes out the window when I end up losing hours of my life due to slip-ups or carelessness.

Combine that with me working on a separate story project and college, and I eventually just chose to put this on the backburner after a while.

We're approaching the end of the story however, and it can be seen through the chapter sizes.

These past few chapters rarely number in over 4,000 words after taking out the Author's Notes I leave.

In some ways it's probably a good thing, since it could probably be seen as padding, but the ending should come in a few more chapters.


End file.
